Keith Gingery Since the school finance cases came out a few years ago, there has been some grumbling from the Wyoming State Legislature as to the activist role taken by the Wyoming Supreme Court in legislating school finance reform from the bench. Some legislators felt that the Wyoming Supreme Court had overstepped its judicial branch role and moved into the arena of legislating. In 2006, Wyoming legislators again expressed concern that the Wyoming Supreme Court was overstepping its boundaries by legislating from the bench. The Court faced a unique issue dealing with trade secrets. The Court pointed out that there was no statutory law in Wyoming that could effectively deal with the situation presented in the case, so the Court had no other choice but to create the law. The Court’s majority was careful to point out that they could not adopt the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which was the preferable choice, but that the Court could adopt the Restatement (Third) of Unfair Competition, which was a close substitute. The Wyoming Legislature only allowed the holding to stand for barely over a month before stepping in and adopting the Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

