Among many other things, the men who occupied the Malheur federal wildlife refuge in Oregon and participated in the standoff at the Bundy ranch in Nevada have been charged for impeding federal agents from doing their jobs.
According to attorneys who represent the Bundy klan, charging them for impeding federal agents is unconstitutional.
[Attorney Amy Baggio] said the charge is too broad and allows the government to decide when a government employee is being impeded. She said the charge places a “sphere of protection” around government workers, which Baggio argued has the potential to create a chilling effect on political protests at government offices, thus violating the First Amendment rights of protesters.
“This statute has the potential to chill speech,” she said in a Portland courtroom Monday. “This statute can chill not only freedom of expression, but also Second Amendment rights to bear arms.”
The judge presiding over the case quickly pointed out that using force against federal employees is "not protected conduct" which the attorney reportedly acknowledged, seemingly defeating her entire argument in very short order.
There's a hint of sovereign citizen arguments in what the defense is presenting in court, arguing that established federal law isn't really the law or somehow does not apply to these men who used forced to occupy federal property.
This is hardly surprising given that they don't believe the federal government even has jurisdiction over the land. They've internalized a perverted view of the Constitution that does not exist in empirical reality.
They're all going down.