United States Ninth Circuit

In a prosecution of two individuals for illegally residing on National Forest Service land in violation of 36 CFR section 261.10(b), one conviction is affirmed and another reversed, where: 1) the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) may regulate residential occupancy of bona fide mining claims within the national forests; 2) section 261.10(b) is consistent with the mining laws and not unconstitutionally vague; 3) in a criminal proceeding predicated on the USFS administrative determination, a defendant may obtain judicial review of the agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), so long as the defendant complied with the procedural requirements for direct review and the APA statute of limitations has not expired; and 4) one defendant did not exhaust his administrative remedies, but the other did.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/26/2012
• Published 04/26/2012

Judges

• Fisher

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James L. Buchal, Neil J. Evans