May 26, 2016

For Immediate Release: Statement by Attorney Morgan Philpot

I’m glad to be on this case, and acknowledge Mike Arnold and Lissa Cassey and the Arnold Law Firm in Eugene, OR., for the work they’ve done to-date. I also anticipate bringing on additional prominent legal team members in the very near future. We are committed to doing everything necessary to bring a full and legitimate defense for Ammon, and to secure his acquittal. Of course, at this point we are focused on the Oregon charges, but we will also being assisting where we can in Nevada.

Federal land ownership, particularly western lands – is a critical, current political concern. Constitutional limits on federal bureaucracies is also a growing modern political concern. These are at the core of this case. It’s our position that all the sensationalization of the so-called Armed Takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge has distracted from the truth. Mr. Bundy and the Malheur occupation was both a legal and legitimate protest. The exercise of the First and Second Amendments together by the Oregon protestors does not somehow constitute a tragedy in America – or a crime. Quite to the contrary, the government’s extreme mishandling and brutal misconduct in response to the lawful attempt at adverse possession of the Malheur refuge property, by Mr. Bundy and his Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, shows how far overgrown federal bureaucracies have strayed from basic American principles and how little common sense was used by the State and Federal governments in resolving this political protest.

We are counting on the courts involved to make fair and principled decisions, and expect that Mr. Bundy and his colleagues will be exonerated. We are confident in the court processes and in the Constitutional protections afforded all defendants like Ammon Bundy. It is also our hope that fair and civic minded Americans (liberal, conservative and independent) will look past the clearly false and troubling government narrative regarding what happened in Oregon, and as they learn the full truth of these circumstances, we hope that friends and like-minded Americans will do what they can to support men and women like Ammon Bundy, who today sits in prison for the very American act of lawfully petitioning his government for redress and standing up for individual rights, the rule of law, and the Constitution of the United States.

On March 22, 2016, while on his historic trip to Havana, Cuba, President Barack Obama proclaimed, “[C]itizens should be free to speak their minds without fear – to organize, and to criticize their government, and to protest peacefully, and the rule of law should not include arbitrary detentions of people who exercise those rights.”[1] Mr. Bundy agrees. And, his legal team will continue to diligently pursue his release from prison, his criminal defense, and ultimately we intend to seek recompense for prosecutorial vindictiveness, and other governmental misconduct involved in this case. These circumstances invite all Americans – including especially the journalists covering this story – to remember the poignant admonition of United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.

“A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea. That is why freedom of speech * * * is * * * protected against censorship or punishment, unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or unrest. * * * There is no room under our Constitution for a more restrictive view.” Edwards v. S. Carolina, 372 U.S. 229, 237-38, 83 S. Ct. 680, 684 (1963).

It is in this context, and for this case and under these circumstances, that we suggest Justice Scalia’s majority opinion in the 2008 Heller case is also very relevant. “[W]hen the able-bodied men of a nation are trained in arms and organized, they are better able to resist tyranny.” D.C. v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 598, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 2801, 171 L. Ed. 2d 637 (2008).

Finally, while this has been and will likely remain a very visible and public case, we intend to pursue a course where, for the most part, our legal filings will speak for themselves. At the same time, we intend to reach out to all of Ammon’s supporters, and to the supporters of all the protestors charged in these cases, to embark on a new organized effort to enlist a broad citizen-based, grassroots effort to tactically, meaningfully, and lawfully assist in securing the release, acquittal and exoneration of all involved.

-End
[1] The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/03/22remarks-president-obama-people-cuba (Last visited Apr 4, 2016)