154 Year Old Law used to Charge the Bundy Domestic Terrorists. (They rejected the idea of Federal Power)

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/01/charge_against_refuge_occupier.html

The 154-year-old law under which Ammon Bundy and others were arrested this week was created to deal with a nation torn apart by war.

But it made sense for the armed occupiers who holed up at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to be charged under the Civil-War era statute, experts say, because like the Confederates, the occupiers rejected federal power.

The armed protesters demanded that the refuge and other federal lands be handed over to local control. They threatened to use force if federal authorities tried to remove them from the refuge. On Jan. 26, or 24 days after taking over the refuge, Bundy and seven others were arrested and charged with conspiring to prevent federal officers from doing their jobs using threats or intimidation. Three more people were arrested Jan. 27.

The seven men and one woman worked together to control federal property and intended to impede federal officials who work on the refuge from doing their jobs, according to the criminal complaint filed by prosecutors. The refuge belongs to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.