More than 120 miners representing the GPAA, LDMA, SPMA, WMA and PLP showed up at the California Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. on May 1 to show support for Public Lands for the People, which is leading the legal battle to end the statewide ban on small-scale suction dredge mining. After saying in open court that he would make a ruling in two weeks, Judge Gilbert Ochoa instead reserved judgement in a closed-door session with all parties, instead calling for a Mandatory Settlement Conference set for June 24, 2014. If a settlement can’t be reached, the case is likely to go to trial in November. The dredging "moratorium" was imposed in 2009 by state legislators and signed into law by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The moratorium, Senate Bill 670,  has since been extended under various pieces of legislation, including Assembly Bill 120, signed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2011. Miners are fighting to end the six-year "moratorium“ on suction dredge mining imposed by California state legislators. They argue the "moratorium" has become an outright ban on prohibition and should be ended because the state legislators have violated the Supremacy Clause by preempting federal mining laws. Look for the full story in the June/July 2014 Pick & Shovel Gazette. There is another forum topic called End the California dredging ban under the Land Rights category. That is where this news brief on the case was originally posted.