Federal Judge Rules for Property Rights in Nevada

[Geaux4it]

The Feds got the message. They are outgunned

-Geaux

Federal Judge Rules for Property Rights, Smacks Down Abusive Feds


in June 2012, Judge Jones had issued a scorching preliminary bench ruling that charged federal officials of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with an ongoing series of illegal actions against Nevada rancher E. Wayne Hage (shown on left) that the judge described as “abhorrent” and a literal, criminal conspiracy.

Judge Jones said he found that “the government and the agents of the government in that locale, sometime in the ’70s and ’80s, entered into a conspiracy, a literal, intentional conspiracy, to deprive the Hages of not only their permit grazing rights, for whatever reason, but also to deprive them of their vested property rights under the takings clause, and I find that that’s a sufficient basis to hold that there is irreparable harm if I don’t … restrain the government from continuing in that conduct.”

In fact, Judge Jones accused the federal bureaucrats of racketeering under the federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organizations) statute, and accused them as well of extortion, mail fraud, and fraud, in an effort “to kill the business of Mr. Hage.”

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Specifically, the court found, "The Government has abused its discretion in the present case through a series of actions designed to strip the [Hage] Estate of its grazing permits, and ultimately to strip Defendants of their ability to use their water rights." He explained, "Substantive due process protects individuals from arbitrary deprivation of their liberty by government."

The court further explained, "The Government cannot withdraw them (grazing permits) or refuse to renew them vindictively or for reasons totally unrelated to the merits of the application as governed by published laws and regulations, lest the Government abuse its executive power in a way that shocks the conscience."

The court found, "In the present case, the Government's actions over the past two decades shock the conscience of the Court." This finding, coupled with the court’s finding that agents of the BLM and the USFS engaged in a conspiracy to deprive the Hage family of their vested property rights, opens the door to potential lawsuits against the individual agents personally for their unconstitutional actions.

Federal Judge Rules for Property Rights, Smacks Down Abusive Feds

 

[waltky]

Mebbe dey gonna give dem illegals dey's own state...

All New England Could Fit on BLM Land in Nevada; BLM Owns 0 Acres in New England
April 23, 2014 -- The acreage the federal Bureau of Land Management currently owns in the state of Nevada is more than all the land in all of the states of New England combined, according to data published by the Congressional Research Service.

By contrast, the BLM does not own a single acre of land in any New England state. New England, according to the Census Bureau consists of six states: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Together, these states encompass 40,400,640 acres. Together these states contain 0 acres of BLM land. Nevada contains a total of 70,264,320 acres. Of these, the federal government owns 56,961,778 acres, or 81.1 percent of the state. That leaves only 13,302,542, or 18.9 percent of the state for owners other than the federal government.

The federal government, in other words, owns more than four times as much land in Nevada as all other land owners combined. Of the 56,961,778 acres of Nevada owned by the federal government, the BLM controls 47,805,923 acres. That is about 84 percent of the federally land in the state and 68 percent of all the land in the state. The 47,805,923 acres that BLM owns in Nevada is 7,405,283 acres more—or 18.3 percent more--than all of New England. “Today, the federal government owns and manages roughly 635-640 million acres of land in the United States—about 28% of the total land base of 2.27 billion acres,” says CRS. “Federal land ownership is concentrated in the West.”

“The BLM was formed in 1946 by combining two existing agencies,” says CRS. “One was the Grazing Service (first known as the DOI Grazing Division), established in 1934 to administer grazing on public rangelands. The other was the General Land Office, which had been created in 1812 to oversee disposal of the federal lands. The BLM currently administers more federal lands than any other agency—247.9 million acres. BLM lands are heavily concentrated (99.8%) in the 11 western states.”

All New England Could Fit on BLM Land in Nevada; BLM Owns 0 Acres in New England | CNS News

See also:

BLM to Spend $10M on Contraception for Wild Horses, Burros
April 22, 2014 – The Bureau of Land Management announced it is planning to award 10 grants of up to $1 million each for wild horse and burro contraception and sterilization for up to five years.

"The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program protects, manages, and controls wild horses and burros under the authority of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 to ensure that healthy herds thrive on healthy rangelands," the grant announcement said. "Development of effective population growth suppression methods for wild horses and burros is vital to effectively managing herd population growth rates as an alternative to gathering and removing animals from BLM lands," it added. "Any sterilization or contraceptive method applicable to male or female horses or burros, including surgical, chemical, pharmaceutical, or mechanical (such as Intrauterine Devices) approaches, will be considered (with the exception of surgical castration)," the grant solicitation said.

In 1971, when Congress passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, these animals were found roaming across 53.8 million acres known as Herd Areas, of which 42.4 million acres were under the BLM's jurisdiction. According to the BLM, there are approximately 40,605 wild horses and burros roaming BLM-managed rangelands in 10 Western states, based on the latest data available as of Feb. 28, 2013. That exceeds by nearly 14,000 the number that the agency says "can exist in balance with other public rangeland resources and uses." The maximum appropriate management level is about 26,677. Since the animals have virtually no natural predators, and their herd sizes can double every four years, the agency must remove thousands of them from the range yearly to control herd sizes.

Cheyenne Rideaux relaxes on the back of Penny, a rescued burro, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2011, at Rachael Waller's ranch in Alpine, Texas. Texas park rangers are trying to wipe out hundreds of free-roaming donkeys in Big Bend Ranch State Park along the U.S. - Mexico border, killing nearly 130 to date, stirring up a whole new kind of border-crosser controversy.

As of April 2014, there were 48,194 other wild horses and burros that are fed and cared for at short-term corrals and long-term pastures off the range. Wild horses and burros in holding as well as those on roaming Western public rangelands are protected by the BLM under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. BLM spokesman Tom Gorey told CNSNews.com that the agency is spending over 60 percent of its budget - $80 million - on holding wild horses and burros. Therefore, the grant is "a worthwhile expenditure," he said. Gorey acknowledged, however, that the program is "very contentious." "We have a lot of critics who want the horses to, as they put it, run free and let the population run out of control - don’t like us rounding them up, which is what we’re mandated to do to keep the levels in what we call an appropriate management level," he said. However, the BLM has "almost run out of capacity off the range in terms of both short-term and long-term holding," Gorey said.

The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act said that horses for which there is no adoption demand cannot be "put down," Gorey noted. Older animals are put out to pasture immediately. The agency has used contraceptive and sterilization on the animals before, but on a small scale, according to Gorey. "The problem with the fertility vaccine we’re using – it’s called PZP – is that it’s really only effective for a year, and when you have an area, an expanse just from BLM land alone. It’s about 27 million acres that these animals cover," Gorey said. "The idea of gathering, treating and then releasing and then gathering a year later, it’s just logistically formidable and expensive, and so it’s really not working. This drug, this vaccine is not working in a way for our agency that it can make a big difference, so that’s why we’re looking for a breakthrough in technology," he added. The grant solicitation was announced on March 6, 2014 and will close on May 7, 2014.

BLM to Spend $10M on Contraception for Wild Horses, Burros | CNS News