State faults Cliven Bundy in I-15 cow crash

http://www.reviewjournal.com ^ | 09/18/2014 | By HENRY BREAN

[redreno]

State transportation officials are refuting rancher Cliven Bundy’s claim that they are ultimately responsible for keeping his cattle off Interstate 15 in northeastern Clark County.

In a statement Thursday, Mary Martini, district engineer for the Nevada Department of Transportation in Las Vegas, said that while the state maintains the fences along I-15 to “designate the right of way” and control access, “it is always the responsibility and liability of the owners to control their animals.”

The dispute could be headed for court.

Bundy was sued for negligence this week by a 34-year-old Las Vegas woman injured when her car hit one of the rancher’s cows on I-15 about 10 miles from his Bunkerville ranch.

The April 14 crash came two days after Bundy and his armed supporters made national news by forcing federal authorities to abruptly abandon an impound operation on public land where the rancher has been raising hundreds of cows without paying grazing fees for more than 20 years.

The collision with the cow sent Danielle Beck and her boyfriend, Matthew Zanatta, to the hospital.

[Scoutmaster]

Those are state laws. As a general rule, federal law trumps state law, under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

I don't want to open up arguments about what land the U.S. can own under the Constitution, or whether land is held in trust for the people of the U.S. or Nevada.

At this point, the 'law' is what federal courts have ruled, which is the land belongs to the feds and federal law controls that land.

Whether or not the feds can enforce its laws and claims is another matter. We saw that with the first Bundy conflict.