PLC and NCBA Ask Supreme Court to Settle Hage Case

PLC and NCBA Ask Supreme Court to Settle Hage Case

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Open Range.

The Public Land Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up and settle a decades-long property rights case, Hage v. United States. The high court would determine whether the U.S. Forest Service violated the Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it interfered with Nevada ranchers Wayne and Jean Hage’s stock water rights.
Last fall the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had reversed an earlier court decision that ordered the U.S. Forest Service to compensate the Hage estate for infringing on property rights.

PLC Executive Director Dustin Van Liew gives more details.
Van Liew: “The case which has been going on for more than two decades now out of Nevada dealing with a takings issue by the federal government. The reason we filed the Amicus is because we see this as a very important issue for our members in that the Forest Service federal agency was attempting to require the Hage family obtain a permit to access their water on federal land. Basically saying that their right of way was going to be conditioned by a permit before they could use and access that water.”
According to Van Liew if the agency is allowed to demand a permit for Hage’s ditch right-of-way, county road rights-of-way established under the Mining Act (known as “R.S. 2477 roads”) would also be in jeopardy.

He says this would further threaten ranchers’ ability to stay in business since they often depend on those roads to access their grazing allotments.