Bundy Ranch Wins Again

A federal jury in Las Vegas, Nevada has refused to convict four defendants who were retried on accusations that they threatened and assaulted federal agents by wielding assault weapons (false charge: true definition of an assault weapon is fully automatic capability – not the left’s definition of what an assault weapon is, which ranges from “scary looking” to “military looking”) in the 2014 confrontation in Nevada.  The jury acquitted Ricky Lovelien and Steven Stewart of all 10 charges, and delivered not-guilty findings on most charges against Scott Drexler and Eric Parker.

The Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro ordered Lovelien and Stewart freed immediately and set Wednesday morning hearings to decide if Parker and Drexler should remain jailed pending a government decision whether to seek a third trial.

19 co-defendants were arrested in early 2016 and charged in the case, including Bundy family members. With the release of Lovelien and Stewart, 17 are still in federal custody.

The whole thing began with a constitutional question.  Does the federal government truly have legal right to control arid desert rangeland in what is now the Gold Butte National Monument when the property is owned by the federal government in defiance of authorities enumerated in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution which requires the federal government to purchase the land with the consent of the State legislature for the purpose of needful buildings?

Cliven Bundy recognizes the constitutional crisis, and lack of federal authority, so he stopped paying grazing fees decades ago, saying he refused to recognize federal authority over public land where he said his family grazed cattle since the early 1900s. The dispute has roots in a nearly half-century fight over public lands in Nevada and the West, where the federal government controls vast expanses of land without proper constitutional authority.

In response to the final decision by the jury in the recent case, one attorney, Todd Leventhal, said, “As much as we were shut down from bringing anything up, the jury saw through it.”

– Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary