Ruling in favor of Western Watersheds Project, a U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., has denied a request by renegade Wyoming rancher Frank Robbins to move the venue of his cattle trespass case from Washington to Wyoming.

Readers of Watersheds Messenger will recall that WWP and the American Lands Alliance sued top political appointees in the Bureau of Land Management, including director Kathleen Clarke and deputy director Francis Cherry, for allowing Robbins to violate federal grazing laws.

The lawsuit targeted a settlement between the BLM and Robbins that is the subject of a separate Inspector General investigation about improper political favoritism by the agency. The action came in the wake of nine years of livestock grazing abuses by Robbins, extensively documented by the BLM's professional staff in its Worland, Wyo., office.

Earlier this year the BLM voided the settlement with Robbins after he was cited for willful trespass of cattle. Robbins' attorney, Karen Budd-Falen of Cheyenne, then filed a complaint in U.S. District Court seeking a preliminary and/or permanent injunction preventing the BLM from voiding the agreement.

In his District Court decision, Judge Henry Kennedy ruled that the Robbins case is "national in scope," citing local and national newspaper articles that characterize the case as "a local dispute turned national, in which Interior Department officials in Washington, D.C. imposed a settlement against the will of local BLM officials."

Kennedy further noted that courts in his district have long ruled that a dispute is national "if the plaintiffs challenge the decisions of top federal agencies in Washington, D.C." The judge said the Robbins case has "national implications", agreeing with WWP that "the settlement agreement (brokered by the BLM) will encourage other Western ranchers to try to circumvent local BLM officials and deal directly with Interior Department officials in Washington, D.C."

"Such issues are of national, not merely local, interest," Kennedy concluded.