There is a 50-square-mile strip of Idaho inside Yellowstone National Park where, thanks to a constitutional technicality, you might be able to commit any crime — including murder — and never be prosecuted. A law professor discovered the loophole in 2004, published a paper begging Congress to fix it, and twenty years later, it's still wide open.
The full breakdown of the constitutional loophole: how the Sixth Amendment's Vicinage Clause, combined with Yellowstone's unusual federal jurisdiction, creates an area where jury trials are legally impossible.
The 2005 Georgetown Law Journal paper that started it all. Law professor Brian Kalt lays out exactly how the loophole works and why Congress needs to fix it before someone exploits it.
The Atlantic's podcast explores the real case of Mike Belderrain, who killed an elk in the Zone of Death and tested the loophole. The result set a troubling legal precedent.
A concise visual explainer of how the Vicinage Clause creates a prosecution black hole in Idaho's strip of Yellowstone. Zero permanent residents means zero eligible jurors.
After high-profile disappearances near Yellowstone, a lawmaker finally pushed for a federal fix. But Congress has ignored every attempt to close the loophole — for over twenty years.
A deep dive into the geography and legal mechanics. The strip is about 2.5 miles wide and 24 miles long, running along Yellowstone's western border — and according to the 2020 census, exactly zero people live there.
GearJunkie examines the practical reality: Kalt himself says it's not that crime is 'legal' there — it's that successful prosecution may be constitutionally impossible. A crucial distinction that hasn't reassured anyone.