On both August 31st and September 1st, 2023, Todd Schmidt, an elder of Laramie Faith Community Church, set up his first table in the Wyoming Union for the 2023-2024 academic school year.
This comes after a year-long ban from the University of Wyoming, and a subsequent civil suit over Schmidt’s First Amendment Rights as a community member on campus. The suit, of which, ruled in Schmidt’s favor as of August 18th, 2023.
Although Schmidt declined an interview with the Branding Iron, he spoke openly about the verdict and his experiences with students throughout the tabling sessions between Thursday and Friday. This comes as a result of Schmidt’s ongoing lawsuit.
As of Thursday, August 31, 2023, two more of his claims were dismissed by the U.S. Senior District Judge Nancy Freudenthal.
This included an individual suit against Dean of Student Ryan O’Neil, whom Judge Freudenthal ruled was not unreasonable in her actions at the time.
The other suit that was dismissed claimed violation of the Due Process Clause, which Judge Freudenthal elaborated on saying that school policies are allowed to be vague enabling them to uphold order, according to an article from the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
