“The Karuk’s legal challenge to longstanding suction dredge regulations in California ultimately resulted in a new set of very unreasonable regulations which were adopted in 2012 along with a Moratorium imposed by the legislature to prevent suction dredging altogether.  All of this prompted multiple lawsuits which were ultimately consolidated in front of Judge Ochoa in the San Bernardino Superior Court.  After many years of ongoing litigation, Judge Ochoa awarded California suction dredgers a huge win on January 12th 2015 by declaring California’s “scheme” of first passing a law that requires us to obtain a permit, and then passing another law making permits unavailable, as an unlawful and un-enforceable interference with the intention of congress. This is truly a great win for all gold miners!  Since this is surely not the end of the story, we will begin here with developments as they move forward”