PORTLAND — A judge in Portland heard arguments Thursday about whether the U.S. government was right to renew the grazing permits of two ranchers who were pardoned last year by President Donald Trump on an arson conviction for setting fire to federal lands.
The Capital Press reports that U.S. District Judge Michael Simon was expected to reach a decision in the long-running case on Friday after hearing arguments from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which granted a 10-year grazing permit Dwight and Steven Hammond after Trump’s pardon. The renewal prompted a coalition of environmental groups to sue.
Simon in July limited where the Hammonds could graze their cattle, but let them continue to use other portions of the public allotments for their ranching operation in southeastern Oregon while the environmental groups continued with a legal challenge.
The Hammonds, a father and son who raise cattle near Diamond, Ore., were convicted of arson in 2012 for setting a fire on federal land that burned about 140 acres. They were initially sentenced to minimal terms and released. But the Hammonds were sent back to prison in 2016 after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that they must both complete the federal mandatory minimum sentence of five years for arson.
