The United States petitioned for cert in the ongoing Navajo Nation case over the Peabody Coal debacle. The Supreme Court held in 2003 that the Indian Mineral Leasing Act did not create a duty, but the Federal Circuit on remand resurrected the claim. Once again, the claim may give rise to $600 million in damages [...]
Ho-Chunk Nation has filed a cert petition in its dispute over revenue sharing with the State of Wisconsin.
Here is the petition — hcn-cert-petition
Here is the docket site — No. 07-1402.
Here are the rest of the materials — CA7 opinion and some briefs — rest of the materials.
SCOTUSBlog isn’t taking any chances with Indian law now.
The Kickapoo v. Texas petition is on its watch list for the May 29, 2008 conference (here).
Docket: 07-1109
Case name: Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas v. Texas, et al.
Issue: Whether, following Seminole Tribe v. Florida (1996), the Secretary of the Interior may establish procedures for Indian [...]
Jacob Levy has posted “Not so Novus an Ordo: Constitutions without Social Contracts,” forthcoming in Political Theory, on SSRN (H/t Legal Theory Blog). It has an interesting discussion of U.S. v. Lara. Here is the abstract:
Social contract theory imagines political societies as resting on a fundamental agreement, adopted at a discrete moment in hypothetical time, [...]
From ICT:
The federal government’s recent actions involving its authority to make decisions on acquiring land in trust for tribal gaming purposes may inadvertently threaten the authority and duty of the secretary of the Interior Department to take land into trust for Indian tribes.
On April 29, the D.C. Circuit decided an innocuous case involving the secretary [...]
Phillip M. Kannan has published “Reinstating Treaty-Making with Native American Tribes” in the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal. An excerpt:
This Article proceeds as follows. The legal history of treaties and treaty-making with Indian tribes and the significance of these treaties to United States law are explored in Part I. The dissatisfaction of the [...]
From the Billings Gazette:
Despite court rulings that slice away at tribal sovereignty, Indian law specialist Tom Fredericks of Boulder, Colo., believes “tribal governments are stronger than ever.”
They have to be. Retreating federal budgets place ever more burden on Indian governments to provide basic services.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs for years has been turning more federal [...]
I’ve posted a short paper called “‘Now What the Hell You Gonna Do in Those Days?’ A Research Note on Practical Barriers to Indian Land Claims” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
There are extra-legal barriers that American Indian people faced when confronted with the illegal theft of their lands, or with any dispossession of their [...]
From the Billings Gazette:
When the last of the bison herds disappeared in the early 1880s, Indian nations on the Northern Plains were reduced to poverty.
In Montana, where there are no high-flying gambling operations and big population centers, economic conditions for American Indians have been slow to change. Unemployment is rampant, and business opportunities are scarce.
Through [...]
The Tohono O’odham Nation joined an amicus brief supporting the cert petition in Defenders of Wildlife v. Chertoff (No. 07-1180) (amici-supporting-cert-petn-national-advocacy-center-et-al). The government has until May 18 to file a response. This is a potentially ground breaking case, given that the Department of Homeland Security has invoked a statute that allows the Department to ignore [...]
