Summary
Criticism of the government’s management of federal lands in the West isn’t limited to the Sagebrush Rebellion — the Nevada rancher who has refused to pay cattle grazing fees, and his kinfolk leading an armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon. There’s also a federal judge who has ruled that ranchers with nearby water rights can graze their cattle on federal land without a permit.
At a trial on civil trespassing charges against a Nevada rancher, U.S. District Judge Robert Clive Jones of Reno described Bureau of Land Management officials as “arrogant,” dismissed almost all of the charges, invited the rancher to sue the government, and held two federal officials in contempt of court.
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The council rarely takes public action against a federal judge, and has not done so against Jones. Deborah Rhode, a Stanford law professor who teaches legal ethics, said the council’s general reluctance to act is the downside of a system designed to minimize political influence over federal judges, who are appointed for life and can be removed only by congressional impeachment.
“In order to insure the independence of the judiciary, we’ve insulated them from accountability,” Rhode said.
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