Co-operating Attorney, Kim Wilson, from Reynolds, Motl and Sherwood of Helena, and Betsy Griffing represented Plaintiffs on appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming that the Plaintiffs had been improperly ejected from a press conference held by the US Forest Service. We claimed, and the Ninth Circuit agreed, that the case should go forward so that we could show that the Plaintiffs were excluded based solely upon their viewpoint – disagreement with the new forest plan– which is constitutionally protected under the First Amendment. On May 12, 2008, the Ninth Circuit remanded the case for trial. In May 2009 the plaintiffs and the U.S. Forest Service reached a settlement, made possible by victory in the Ninth Circuit.

Attorney(s)

Betsy Griffing (ACLU on appeal to Ninth Circuit) Kim Wilson (Reynolds, Motl and Sherwood, Helena)

Date filed

May 3, 2007

Court

United States Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit

Case number

06-35937