September 16, 1998

In the United States District Court for the District of Arizona

USA v. Linick

Hearing held on the Defendant's Motion to Dismiss

The Court finds that the forest service has a remarkably complex set of burdens and responsibilities in order to properly discharge its stewardship of the public lands of the United States and the regulatory scheme which it has in place and which it modifies from time to time in
an effort to properly discharge those responsibilities is a challenging task at best. Its broad responsibilities, of course, are to manage the national forests and the public lands of the country in a manner that will serve the best interest of the people of the United States in the many and various uses that it properly seeks to make of this national and public resource.

The court further finds that the regulatory provisions involved in this case, the non-commercial group use regulations as would be applied to the defendant, are impermissibly broad in that 251.56 (a) (2) (vii) of the Code of Federal Regulations grants an inappropriately broad range of discretion to the official discharging responsibility cast upon he or she under the regulatory scheme.

Accordingly, the regulations are deemed as a matter of law to be inappropriate by the Court. The defendant would not be under a lawful obligation to make application for such a permit and the information charging a criminal violation because of failure to comply with Title 36 CFR 261.10k can not stand and is not appropriate.

IT IS ORDERED granting the defendant's motion to dismiss. The Court further finds that it is unnecessary for it go further in this case. Trial date of 10/28/98 is vacated.