CARSON CITY -- Organizers of the People's Initiative to Stop the Taking of Our Land on Monday filed their official opposition to a lawsuit filed by several government groups trying to block the petition from the November ballot.

The opposition was filed in Carson City District Court.

"Bruce Woodbury, Nevadans for the Protection of Property Rights, and everybody else involved in filing this frivolous lawsuit should be ashamed of themselves," said Kermitt Waters, co-author of PISTOL. "It's outrageous that these government officials are spending taxpayer dollars in an effort to suppress the will of the very people they are supposed to be representing.

"All we want is for the voters to have a chance to make an up-or-down vote on the issue," he said.

Nearly 136,000 Nevadans signed the petition to put the Nevada Property Owners Bill of Rights on the ballot, even though only 83,184 signatures were needed for it to qualify.

"The people have responded overwhelmingly to this initiative," said Don Chairez, Chairman of PISTOL.

The Nevada Property Owners Bill of Rights would stop the government from taking private land away from citizens for private use, advocates say.

"Property rights are fundamental constitutional rights," Chairez said. "The Nevada Property Owners Bill of Rights is the solution to government abuse of private property rights."

If it survives the legal challenge, voters would have to approve it twice, in November and again in 2008, for it to take effect.

A coalition of Southern Nevada governments and business alliances filed a lawsuit July 20 seeking to kill the measure.

"The lawsuit is an effort to present ... what we believe to be the invalidity of the initiative in several regards," said Woodbury, a Clark County commissioner.