I posted the following on another thread. This is ultimately about property rights versus squatters’ rights and not states’ rights.
It’s not his land. His cattle are grazing on federal land.
At the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico and the U.S. signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which granted title to that land to the U.S., for which the U.S. paid Mexico $15 million.
Sixteen years later in 1864, Nevada became a state. A provision of the Nevada Statehood Act of 1864 promised that Nevada would disclaim all rights to the unappropriated public lands lying within its boundaries, and that such land would remain at the sole disposition of the United States.
Cliven Bundy has no legal right to graze his cattle on federal land without permission. When he stopped paying grazing fees, the federal government sold his grazing rights to the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.
In short, the U.S. bought and paid for that land. It owns it. It makes the rules on it.
(Note: I made no assertions about the rightness of armed BLM officers or the 1st Amendment area and none should be inferred.)
That may be the legal nub of the matter,
but I’m thinking this has more to do with
“we’re fedup with the fedgov”.
What entitled Mexico to sell this land in 1848? And who did they purchase it from?