Free Republic

Cliven Bundy’s family is using social media to plan a rally outside the federal courthouse on Thursday before his arraignment on felony charges stemming from the April 2014 armed standoff with law enforcement near Bunkerville. The defiant Nevada rancher, who is in federal custody, is to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bill Hoffman at 2 p.m. Thursday. On its Facebook page, the Bundy Ranch says it’s “planning on filling the sidewalks” outside the courthouse at 333 Las Vegas Blvd. South from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and “then filling the courtroom.” A reference to the notice was also posted on...

The leaders of a six-week armed occupation at a U.S. wildlife refuge in rural Oregon are to be arraigned on Wednesday on charges of conspiring to impede federal officers policing the compound during a fight over federal control of land in the West. Ammon Bundy and other anti-government protesters arrested in connection with the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon were set to appear in U.S. court in Portland on Wednesday, Bundy's attorneys said in a statement. Four of the 16 protesters facing one conspiracy charge each have asked the court to wave their appearance at...

A six-count criminal complaint was filed Thursday in Las Vegas against Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy stemming from the April 2014 armed standoff with federal law enforcement officers. Bundy, 69, who was arrested in Portland, Oregon, late Wednesday, was charged with leading a "massive armed assault" against authorities outside his ranch to force them to abandon roughly 400 Bundy cattle they had rounded up. He had "trespassed his cattle" on federal public lands for more than 20 years, refusing to pay for required permits and thwarting federal court orders, the complaint alleges. "Bundy was the leader, organizer and chief beneficiary of...

They implored him to think about the Holy Spirit. They explained that the First Amendment is about freedom of speech and the Second is about the right to bear arms, and said that they were in that order for a reason. They asked him what he thought Jesus would have done in his situation. He, in turn, asked for pizza and marijuana. In the final moments, it all came down to one troubled young man and the exhaustive attempts by two of his ideological sympathizers to get him to surrender peacefully and end the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife...

Cliven Bundy, the father of the man who helped start the protest at a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, was arrested by the FBI late Wednesday night in Portland. Details of the arrest, including charges and location, were not immediately available. The FBI said those details would be released Thursday morning. Reached early Thursday at the Bundy ranch house near Bunkerville, Cliven Bundy's daughter Bailey confirmed that Cliven had been arrested but wouldn't provide details. "That's all we know at this time and we're not commenting tonight," she said. Meanwhile, federal agents closed in on the four remaining militia occupants...

The jailed leader of the occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon has called on elected officials from mostly Western states to voice support for free speech and civil disobedience and to visit their constituents in federal custody. At least one Nevada lawmaker , state Assemblywoman Michele Fiore , is answering the call. "It is your duty to hold federal agencies at bay, protecting the people in your state," occupation leader Ammon Bundy said according to the transcript of a telephone call he made Saturday from jail and released by one of his lawyers Monday.

Ammon Bundy, the rancher who led an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon, abruptly reversed course Tuesday and withdrew a request to be released from custody as he awaits trial on a felony conspiracy charge, court papers showed. Bundy had initially been scheduled Tuesday to ask a federal judge in Oregon to release him on electronic GPS surveillance, his attorney Mike Arnold said. But now Bundy will resubmit that request at a later time, his attorneys said in court papers. He will stay incarcerated "to gather further evidence of his statements and actions encouraging a peaceful protest...

There are several reasons why we have chosen not to dig into this specific aspect of this event, after posting the first three research articles. Here are the ones we are comfortable stating: The freedom continuum has two diametrically opposing forces on either end. On one end, the left, if you travel outward from democracy to socialism to communism eventually you arrive at totalitarianism. The absolute power of government over the individual. The maximum amount of liberty lost. On the oppositional end, the right, again if you travel from democracy to a constitutional republic and keep going, eventually you arrive...

For 26 days, armed occupiers have been holed up in a lonely federal wildlife refuge headquarters in rural Oregon. Dismissing the exhortations of the governor, ignoring the inconveniences of the residents, the occupiers stood their ground, saying they were protesting federal land policies. The government waited patiently for an opportunity to end the situation peacefully. A break came Tuesday night when Ammon Bundy, the group's leader, was arrested along with six others. An eighth person turned himself in. The group's spokesman, LaVoy Finicum, was killed. Here's a look at what happened -- and what happens next:

CNN)One person was killed as authorities arrested a group of people -- including Ammon Bundy -- involved with the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, the FBI and Oregon State Police said. The deceased individual, who has not been identified, was the subject of a federal probable cause arrest, officials said.

Four days after taking the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon, LaVoy Finicum, a 55-year-old Arizona rancher told NBC News that he'd rather die than spend his days in prison. "There are things more important than your life and freedom is one of them," he said in early January as he sat huddled in a blue tarp outside of the wildlife refuge keeping watch with his gun in his lap. "I'm prepared to defend freedom." Finicum told NBC that night that he was staying outside to ensure that the FBI could find him if they came to arrest him....

A broad group of conservationists, state lawmakers and tribal members on Tuesday called for the federal government to arrest the Southern Nevada leaders and self-styled militiamen leading the armed occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge headquarters. Battle Born Progress, the state advocacy group leading the call from Nevada, is also sending a care package to U.S. Fish and Wildlife officers based in Oregon to show their appreciation for handling the standoff. Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy, the sons of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy, overtook the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge's headquarters in southeastern Oregon on Jan. 2. Since then, the group...

BURNS, Ore. — Ammon Bundy's goal is to reverse transactions that moved control of lands from ranchers to the federal government. What's unclear: Exactly how he intends to do that as he occupies for the third day the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge south of Burns in southeastern Oregon with a self-styled militia group of supporters. An Oregon sheriff on Monday called the effort an "armed occupation" and told the group to go home.

BATTLE MOUNTAIN, Nev. (AP) — Federal land managers say they won't immediately enforce drought-related grazing restrictions in northern Nevada so as to avoid confrontation with ranchers openly defying the order. Conservationists say it's another example of the government caving in to scofflaw ranchers like Cliven Bundy, who continues to graze his cattle illegally in southern Nevada after the Bureau of Land Management backed down from an armed standoff last year. Ranchers Dan and Eddyann Filippini have been notified they are violating the closure ordered in 2013 in an area covering more than 150 square miles near Battle Mountain about 200...

There came a time during the Assembly Judiciary Committee’s hearing Monday when Las Vegas Republican Michele Fiore wondered — out loud — why it was that county sheriffs weren’t arresting federal law enforcement officers (she called them “thugs”) for impersonating police officers. Oh, yes, that happened. Fiore recounted her experience at the Bunkerville ranch of Cliven Bundy in April 2014, when hordes of well-armed, self-styled militia types showed up to confront federal Bureau of Land Management officers who were there to serve a duly issued court order to seize cattle that Bundy had been illegally grazing on federal land for...

Ryan Bundy, son of Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, was arrested Tuesday in Cedar City, Utah. Iron County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Nik Johnson said in a release that Bundy was served with an arrest warrant while at the county courthouse on a separate case. Bundy, 42, verbally and physically resisted the deputies’ attempts to take him into custody, but deputies overpowered and arrested him, Johnson said. Bundy was booked on charges of interfering with an officer, from the arrest warrant, and an additional charge of resisting arrest.

The Southern Nevada rancher who was criticized earlier this year for suggesting black people were better off as slaves is raising eyebrows again. Cliven Bundy appears in a campaign ad to elect an African-American man to Congress, saying he ought to be able to say what he wants without being labeled a racist. Third-party candidate Kamau Bakari appeared alongside Bundy and posted the video online last week. It’s since attracted more than 50,000 views on YouTube.

Another warrant has been issued for the arrest of one of rancher Cliven Bundy’s sons, a little more than a month after he was released from jail. Bundy’s 34-year-old son, also named Cliven Lance Bundy, failed to appear in court this week for a hearing before Judge Linda Marie Bell, who issued a warrant for his arrest. Bundy was arrested last month for criminal contempt and parole violations on burglary and weapons theft charges. Bell had issued a warrant for Bundy in July after he didn’t appear for a drug diversion program hearing. He had undergone hip surgery the day...

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...