The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to weigh in on the ongoing battle over corner crossing. That’s the act of stepping over private land to access parcels of public land.
A Wyoming landowner petitioned the court on July 16 to make corner crossing illegal, arguing that it is trespassing and violates private airspace. The case dates back to 2021, when four hunters from Minnesota crossed over that landowner’s property.
“This case is an optimal vehicle for this Court to put these questions to rest and to restore the long-held understanding that states can forbid trespassing across private checkerboard property,” reads the filing, which the hunters’ attorney sent to the Mountain West News Bureau, since it wasn’t online by publication time.
This all comes after the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in March that corner crossing is legal in the states within its jurisdiction: Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas. The appeals court’s ruling upheld a previous order from a Wyoming judge in favor of the hunters.
Now, in those western states, corner crossing is allowed as long as recreationists do not physically touch private land. Hunters, like the ones accused of trespassing, use strategies like jumping across corners or climbing ladders over fences.
Advocates say the March decision opened millions of acres of otherwise landlocked public land.
“For all public land users, this is just a monumental win for access,” Devin O’Dea, with the nonprofit Backcountry Hunters and Angers, told the Mountain West News Bureau in March.
The Supreme Court could decide in early fall whether they’ll hear the case, potentially knocking down corner crossing and returning decision-making power to the states, or expanding the practice nationwide.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
