By Sean Whaley | January 18, 2016
CARSON CITY — The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of the federal government in a long-running dispute with the late Nevada rancher Wayne Hage, remanding the case to a new federal judge because of apparent bias on the part of U.S. District Judge Robert Clive Jones.
In a separate unpublished memorandum also filed Friday, the panel of the appeals court reversed a finding of contempt against BLM employee Thomas Seley and U.S. Forest Service employee Steven Williams, finding that Jones “grossly abused the power of contempt.”
In the main opinion, the 9th Circuit, in a ruling written by Judge Susan Graber, granted the request by the U.S. government to reassign the case.