Monday, April 14, 2014

The Bundy Ranch and the Nevada Constitution

The Atlantic:
But Bundy's understanding of states' rights is far different. As he told Sean Hannity in an interview last week (emphasis added):
Well, you know, my cattle is only one issuethat the United States courts has ordered that the government can seize my cattle. But what they have done is seized Nevada statehood, Nevada law, Clark County public land, access to the land, and have seized access to all of the other rights of Clark County people that like to go hunting and fishing. They've closed all those things down, and we're here to protest that action. And we are after freedom. We're after liberty. That's what we want.
Bundy's claim that the land belongs to Nevada or Clark County didn't hold up in court, nor did his claim of inheriting an ancestral right to use the land that pre-empts the BLM's role. "We definitely don't recognize [the BLM director's] jurisdiction or authority, his arresting power or policing power in any way," Bundy told his supporters, according to The Guardian.
His personal grievance with federal authority doesn't stop with the BLM, though. "I believe this is a sovereign state of Nevada," Bundy said in a radio interview last Thursday. "I abide by all of Nevada state laws. But I don’t recognize the United States government as even existing." Ironically, this position directly contradicts Article 1, Section 2 of the Nevada Constitution:
All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, security and benefit of the people; and they have the right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require it. But the Paramount Allegiance of every citizen is due to the Federal Government in the exercise of all its Constitutional powers as the same have been or may be defined by the Supreme Court of the United States; and no power exists in the people of this or any other State of the Federal Union to dissolve their connection therewith or perform any act tending to impair, subvert, or resist the Supreme Authority of the government of the United States. The Constitution of the United States confers full power on the Federal Government to maintain and Perpetuate its existence, and whensoever any portion of the States, or people thereof attempt to secede from the Federal Union, or forcibly resist the Execution of its laws, the Federal Government may, by warrant of the Constitution, employ armed force in compelling obedience to its Authority.
The paramount-allegiance clause, a product of the era in which Nevada gained statehood, originated in Nevada's first (and unofficial) constitutional convention of 1863. Some 3,000 miles to the east, the Civil War raged between the federal government in the North and West and the rebellion that had swallowed the South.
I can't believe these loons are out there with guns defending this guy's right to graze cattle on federal land without paying grazing fees.  The West is so full of people living off of the federal government and hating it at the same time.  Freaking idiots.

2 comments:

  1. These guys are scary as hell. Unfortunately, agrarian militia types seem to be growing in number. You'd think they'd give consideration to the fact that corn, bean, cattle and hog farmers have gotten rich, big time, since Obama took office. Don't take offense, but in my experience farmers are chronic bitchers. A generalization, yes, but not by much. Taxes, unions, poor people, welfare, food stamps. You name it. And they're all programs that benefit agriculture.

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  2. They definitely are scary. And, yes, farmers are exemplary bitchers. Reminds me of my favorite farmer joke. http://afarmerinohio.blogspot.com/2012/04/cheerful-farmers.html

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