With Mistrial Declared in First Bundy Trial, Federal Land Policies Remain the Real Issue

‘The land policies of the federal government, which commandeers about 640 million acres nationwide (28% of the 2.27 billion acres of the overall U.S.), do indeed call into question the very nature of such massive land control. The concentration of federal land ownership in the American West is especially staggering, with over 80% of Nevada falling under federal jurisdiction.
Behind the façade of the prosecution’s rather tedious, misleading courtroom arguments, that’s the real issue in the first trial of the landmark Cliven Bundy property-rights case—in which the jury deadlocked on April 24.
The opening trial started Feb. 6 and has dragged on longer than expected—concerning a case in which federal land jurisdiction and control are the true bedrock issues. But such issues have been buried under loads of lurid legal scenarios from the prosecution, which evidently seeks to paint all the defendants as “far-right” armed insurrectionists who would overturn government land mismanagement at gunpoint if necessary.’
Read more: With Mistrial Declared in First Bundy Trial, Federal Land Policies Remain the Real Issue