Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy refiled a lawsuit against the governments of his home state and county over the legality of a national monument established under former President Barack Obama.
Bundy filed the original suit in January challenging the December 2016 designation of the Gold Butte National Monument. Obama created the monument while Bundy was being held in federal prison on conspiracy and other charges related to a 2014 standoff with law enforcement from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). (RELATED: Bundy To Sue Feds Over Who Really Owns Land In Nevada)
Bundy holds that the national monument is “as illegal as it is unlawful” and would lock him out of land he had ranched and raised cattle on for decades. Bundy lawyers Larry Klayman and Craig Mueller — who ran unsuccessfully for Nevada attorney general in 2018 — refiled the lawsuit after the original was thrown out due to a lack of any follow-up action, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Bundy’s wants all federal land in the state turned over to the state and its residents.
Nearly all land in Nevada is owned by the federal government. The BLM and other land-managing agencies run 84.9 percent of the state’s surface area.
Bundy stood up to BLM officials who attempted to seize the rancher’s cattle in 2014. BLM’s action came after Bundy refused to pay grazing fees to the federal government for decades, instead paying them to the state of Nevada. Bundy was arrested after a three-day standoff in which the BLM authorities eventually stood down and left without seizing any of the rancher’s cattle.
Bundy’s trial was dismissed “with prejudice” in January after the judge found that federal prosecutors had hidden evidence from the jury that was favorable to the Bundy’s case.
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