Lawyer says rancher Cliven Bundy will appeal lawsuit dismissal

A lawyer for Cliven Bundy said Wednesday that he plans to appeal a judge’s decision to throw out a lawsuit in which the Southern Nevada rancher sought to declare all public lands a part of the state.

District Judge Jim Crockett’s decision this week followed previous court decisions against Bundy, who has claimed the federal government should not own land.

Crockett wrote that “it is simply delusional to maintain that all public land” in Nevada should belong to the state.

One of Bundy’s lawyers, Larry Klayman, said he was planning an appeal. He called Crockett’s comment an inappropriate personal attack and a judicial violation.

“It was completely uncalled for, and it shows the judge’s bias and prejudice,” Klayman said.

After he was cleared of federal criminal charges last year and freed from jail after nearly two years, Bundy claimed in a suit against Nevada and Clark County that then-President Barack Obama’s late 2016 establishment of Gold Butte National Monument was illegal, and would preclude him from continuing to function on his land and destroy his livelihood.

In January 2018, U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro dismissed charges against Bundy, two of his sons and another man in connection with an armed standoff with the Bureau of Land Management.

The April 2014 standoff occurred after federal agents tried to execute a court order to round up Bundy’s cattle following a decadeslong dispute over grazing fees.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.