A federal jury in Portland, Ore., on Thursday acquitted Ammon Bundy and six followers in the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last winter, handing antigovernment activists a major legal victory in a case that put a national spotlight on the issue of federal land control in the West.

The nine-woman, three-man jury found Bundy, 41, his brother Ryan, 43, and the others not guilty of conspiracy to impede federal officers through intimidation, threats or force in the 41-day occupation of the refuge in the high desert of southeastern Oregon.