High Court Decision
Rare Grazing Victory

WASHINGTON D.C. — Public lands ranchers have won a rare victory — at least for now — and their spokesmen are pinning their hopes for a return to grazing stability on the eventual outcome.

Battered by a string of anti-grazing lawsuits, stockmen won a round earlier this month when the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear a case involving grazing rights in the western United States.

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the American Sheep Industry Association, the Association of National Grasslands and the American Farm Bureau Federation filed the suit in 1995 against the Interior Department over the federal agency's regulations concerning grazing rights.

In Public Lands Council et al v Babbitt, U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Brimmer ruled for the ranchers in 1996 and set aside four areas of the regulations. The Interior Department appealed and in 1998, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a split decision reversed the rulings on three of the four areas.

The case has been selected by the Supreme Court and could be heard early next year.

"If the Justices rule in our favor, that means we still have the preferential rights we've had for 65 years," says Cindy Siddoway, president of the American Sheep Industry Association. "It means the improvements we've made on these range areas are our property, not the BLM's. It means continuance of the practice that grazing permits go to livestock enterprises, and it means increased financial stability to the industry."

"This hopefully will reaffirm that regulations cannot be used as a tool to appease special interest groups while ignoring Congress and existing laws," adds Mike Byrne, chairman of the NCBA's Federal Lands Committee.