Bad News for the Bundys: Court sides with US agency in decades-old land-grazing case

[cali]

Siding with the government in a decades-old battle over grazing rights, a federal appeals court overturned a lower-court ruling in favor of a Nevada rancher and strongly admonished a judge in Reno for abusing his power and exhibiting personal bias against U.S. land managers.

In a pair of decisions issued on Friday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the late Wayne Hage of Tonopah and his family were guilty of trespassing cattle on federal land illegally without a grazing permit and should be subject to fines. The appellate court based in San Francisco also determined that U.S. District Judge Robert Clive Jones had no legal basis to find employees of the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service in contempt of court for doing their jobs.

In remanding the case back to the lower court in Reno, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit took the unusual step of ordering a different district judge to handle the case.

Such a move is warranted "only in rare and extraordinary circumstances, such as when the district court has exhibited personal bias or when reassignment is advisable to maintain the appearance of justice," Judge Susan Graber wrote in the 3-0 decision.

"We regretfully conclude that the quoted standard is met here because a reasonable observer could conclude that the judge's feelings against (the federal agencies) are both well-established and inappropriately strong," she wrote, noting that the appellate court has "expressed concern about Judge Jones' conduct in several other recent cases."


<snip>

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/state_news/court-sides-with-us-agency-in-decades-old-land-grazing/article_ef8c0bdc-b660-5d11-b6c3-7b778ad4372f.html

[truebluegreen]

1. Good. nt

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Now let's see if the DOJ gets their act together.

By the way,did you notice the other rulings that were over turned and Jones is a Bush/Cheney appointee in 2003. And we wonder why Nevada is so damn corrupt. Yup,a real living activist Judge. And he is a Rethug. Believe Harry Reid was one of his sponsors.

[dmr]

3. Seems to me that judge needs to be investigated.

I bet the money behind all this upheaval will take this to the Supreme Court.

The domestic terrorists out in Oregon want to branch out. They're looking at Utah, maybe they should head on over to Nevada. Sure hope they bring their snacks, & of course a few dildos.

Hope the Feds get a good RICO case going.