fox news reporting, enemies of the state. from new york here is john scott. enemies of the state, the phrase conjures up perhaps the former soviet union where an all-powerful government crushes any individual who stands up against it. in truth even in a representative democracy such as ours, if the government goes after you, it can be a nightmare. tonight, we re going to show you several alarming stories in which government officials decide to take on private citizens. these people who didn t, and still don t believe they were breaking any rules, were suddenly in the fight of their lives. the full force of the government bearing down on them. and that s what makes it so scary. if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone. we start in nevada where john roberts has the story of a family of ranchers who found their very way of life under attack. the western range lands, vast scenic and a battleground for what became known as the sage brush rebellion a fight that
fox news reporting, enemies of the state. from new york here is john scott. enemies of the state, the phrase conjures up perhaps the former soviet union where an all-powerful government crushes any individual who stands up against it. in truth even in a representative democracy such as ours, if the government goes after you, it can be a nightmare. tonight, we re going to show you several alarming stories in which government officials decide to take on private citizens. these people who didn t, and still don t believe they were breaking any rules, were suddenly in the fight of their lives. the full force of the government bearing down on them. and that s what makes it so scary. if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone. we start in nevada where john roberts has the story of a family of ranchers who found their very way of life under attack. the western range lands, vast scenic and a battleground for what became known as the sage brush rebellion a fight that
tens of thousands, maybe more. fox news reporting, enemies of the state. from new york here is john scott. enemies of the state, the phrase conjures up perhaps the former soviet union where an all-powerful government crushes any individual who stands up against it. in truth even in a representative democracy such as ours, if the government goes after you, it can be a nightmare. tonight, we re going to show you several alarming stories in which government officials decide to take on private citizens. these people who didn t, and still don t believe they were breaking any rules, were suddenly in the fight of their lives. the full force of the government bearing down on them. and that s what makes it so scary. if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone. we start in nevada where john roberts has the story of a family of ranchers who found their very way of life under attack. the western range lands, vast scenic and a battleground for what became known as the sa
government ruled on the case first brought by wayne hage, sr. almost 17 years earlier. the family prevailed. the judge awarded the hage estate more than $4 million, plus another 10 million in interest and attorney s fees. the trespass case already a year into litigation would take another five more to sort out. on may 24th, 2013, the hages won another victory. the chief judge of the district court in nevada filed this 104-page ruling ordering the government to renew their permit. he also found that the government pressured hage business associates not to do business with them and that officials conspired to deprive the hages of their vested water rights. the judge said some of the things that were done by them shocked the conscious of the court. he said that several times, that it shocked the conscious of
in our case they were supposed to be held accountable. perhaps the hearing will lead to congressional action on regulatory relief. but until then, wayne hage, jr. continues the decades long fight he inherited from his father. go back to when your father was considering buying the pine krek ranch. what would you say to him? i d say buy it. really? never ask for an easy life, just ask for the strength to get through it. i d do it again. so we ve seen four examples in which private citizens had trouble with the federal government. if each of our examples the government had its side of the story but to the people we talked to it wasn t a fair fight. the truth is our government is so big and there are so many laws that there s barely a citizen who isn t breaking or stretching some regulation somewhere and that means most any public official with the inclination has the capacity to make you jump through hoops in the ways no one else can. part of the social contract that we vote