Bundy 's Lawyers Say Charges Should be Dropped Because the Feds Don't Own Malheur Refuge

[struggle4progress]

By COLIN MINER
April 24, 2016 12:52 am ET

The federal government does not own Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, has no right to have federal employees work on the land and, thus, has no right to charge anyone with interfering with that work.

That's the crux of the argument lawyers for Ammon Bundy plan to out forth, according to documents filed Friday in federal court.

"The motion to dismiss in this case will challenge the Federal Government's authority to assert ownership over the land that is now known as the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge," writes Lissa Casey, one of Bundy's lawyers. "It is Defendant’s position that this authority is critical to the Federal Government’s authority to have federal employees work on that land.

"Jurisdiction in this case will determine whether the Federal Government can prosecute protesters for being there at all" ...

http://patch.com/oregon/portland/oregon-standoff-latest-ammon-bundy-s-lawyers-say-charges-should-be-dropped-because-feds-dont-own

[2naSalit]

1. Slapheads!

Of course the government doesn't own these properties, they merely mange them for us. And even if ownership were the case, it is we who are allegedly the government... for and by the people yada yada.

They make as much sense as the talking barfbags they obey/are controlled by from the magic box called the radio or teevee.

[struggle4progress]

4. Supreme Court already ruled that feds rightly own occupied refuge

By Betsy Hammond | The Oregonian/OregonLive
on January 06, 2016 at 5:11 AM
updated February 22, 2016 at 1:47 PM
... the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on exactly that question, specifically regarding the lands of the original Malheur national refuge -- twice. Those rulings by the nation's highest court, in 1902 and in 1935, found that the federal government has an incontrovertible claim to the refuge's wetlands and lakebeds, dating back to the 1840s, when Oregon was still a territory. "Before Oregon was admitted to statehood, the United States is shown to have acquired title which it has never in terms conveyed away," Justice Harlan Stone wrote in 1935 ...
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/01/supreme_court_already_ruled_th.html

Bundy and his moronic attorneys want to turn the trial into a three-ring-circus. But there is no question of fact here to set before a jury: federal ownership of Malheur has already long been settled as a matter of law

[2naSalit]

5. And that was the other point

bouncing around in my head but I was distracted while commenting... was listening to Prince at the same time. You are correct, of course, and that is why I was laughing in the first place.

They really want to recruit more idiots to help defend them and will try everything their feeble minds can muster.

[struggle4progress]

6. Perhaps they'll want to challenge their time in federal prison

on similar grounds: "Yarronnah, the fedrall gummint cain't detain mah clients in this here prison, on account that this here prison ain't actually on fedrall land, cause there really ain't no fedrall lands"

[2naSalit]

7. Yeah

pretzel logic is all they've got cuz that's how they think... if you can call what they thinking!

All I know is, if they can't accept our government, there's all the rest of the planet they can go inhabit outside of our borders. Maybe we could ship them some other country... or maybe an island that is soon to sink into the ocean.

[snooper2]

12. Give her a break, she doesn't look like the brightest bulb in the box LOL

I'm feeling some fundie here LOL..Almost Kim Davis Fundie with a little bit better (but not much) fashion sense

[2naSalit]

13. Ummm, good point

perhaps one of those home-schooled-by-know-nothing-know-it-alls. And if she studied law at one of those BYU type schools...

We got lots of 'em 'round these parts.

Here's a good article that is interesting, by George Wuerthner that is relevant to this topic:

http://www.thewildlifenews.com/2016/04/25/loservilles-of-the-west-and-modern-day-ghost-dance/

I know this author and he's usually spot on.

[DebbieCDC]

2. Nice try

[SHRED]

3. The stupid...it burns.

[GliderGuider]

8. A "Sovereign Citizen" gambit?

This should be interesting to watch...
In a morbid mental train-wreck kind of way...

[Gothmog]

9. The Bundys are crazy

An insanity defense would be stronger

[struggle4progress]

10. ... “We look forward to Ammon Bundy’s attempt to re-litigate 200 years of jurisprudence

regarding the property clause, and United States v. Oregon, the 1935 Supreme Court case that specifically established the American people’s ownership of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Western Priorities ...

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/legal-experts-mock-ammon-bundy-defense-for-ignoring-unmistakable-legal-reality/

[struggle4progress]

11. ... a Bundy co-defendant Kenneth Medenbach attempted to make that same argument

in U.S. District Court in Eugene, but federal Judge Michael J. McShane dismissed it as lacking merit ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/04/ammon_bundy_to_challenge_autho.html

[gratuitous]

14. The Bundy Gang will fare no better with Judge Brown

I don't know what the end game is for these chuckleheads, except their plaintive assertion that the Constitution is wrong, it's been wrongly interpreted by the courts for over 200 years, and decisions that have been on the books for decades were wrongly arrived at.

I don't know what Crackerjack box these simpletons got their law degree out of (or, more likely, Liberty University), but that's not how the law works. The cynical side of me suspects these legal jackwagons know this, but crowdfunded tilting at windmills is a lot easier than working for a living, and the suckers who send them money seem to have an endless supply to waste on futile efforts.