Mealey's Native American Law
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June 24, 2019
Tribes, Environmental Groups Say Appeal Of Fracking Leases Is Not Moot
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Native American tribal groups and conservationists on June 21 filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that their appeal of the Trump administration’s decision to reinstate hydraulic fracturing leases on tribal land in Montana is not moot, as the administration has suggested (W.A. Moncrief, Jr. v. United States Department of the Interior, et al., No. 18-5340, D.C. Cir.).
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June 24, 2019
Court Rejects Indian Inmate’s Petition After Allowing Prosecutions By 2 Sovereigns
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court justices on June 24 turned down a request to decide an Indian woman’s double jeopardy claims for a federal manslaughter charge that followed her manslaughter conviction in a tribal court, after holding a week ago in another case that a person can be prosecuted for the same crime by separate sovereigns (Tawnya Bearcomesout v. United States, No. 17-6856, U.S. Sup.).
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June 24, 2019
Justices Decline To Review Ruling Allowing Injury Claims Against Tribe, Casino
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 agreed with the U.S. government and denied a petition for certiorari challenging an Alabama Supreme Court decision that an Indian tribe is not protected by tribal sovereign immunity from tort claims in a car crash personal injury negligence suit (Poarch Band of Creek Indians, et al. v. Casey Marie Wilkes, et al., No. 17-1175, U.S. Sup.).
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June 21, 2019
Ruling On Assault Victim’s Indian Status Affirmed By 9th Circuit Panel
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 17 upheld a man’s conviction for an assault that happened on a Montana Indian reservation after finding that there was enough evidence at trial to show that the victim is an Indian under the General Crimes Act (United States v. Edward Anthony Torres, No. 18-30140, 9th Cir., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 18084).
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June 21, 2019
South Dakota Supreme Court Says Ex-Employee’s Case Against Tribal School Preempted
PIERRE, S.D. — Wrongful termination claims leveled by a former principal at an Indian school are preempted by federal laws providing for the education of Native American children, the South Dakota Supreme Court held June 19 in affirming dismissal of the claims in state court (Timothy Stathis v. Marty Indian School, et al., No. 2019 S.D. 33, S.D. Sup.).
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June 21, 2019
Martha’s Vineyard Tribe Can Conduct Gaming, But Building Permits Required
BOSTON — On a return trip on remand following U.S. Supreme Court rejection of the case, a Native American tribe was awarded judgment June 19 by a Massachusetts federal judge to operate a bingo establishment on Martha’s Vineyard, though not the full judgment it had sought (Massachusetts, et al. v. Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head [Aquinnah], et al., No. 13-13286, D. Mass.).
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June 18, 2019
9th Circuit Appeal Stayed For Decision In Fight Against Tribe’s Election
SEATTLE — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 13 halted an appeal in a Washington Indian tribe’s membership dispute pending the outcome of a case challenging the validity of the tribe’s government-directed election (Margretty Rabang, et al. v. Robert Kelly, Jr., et al., No. 18-35711, 9th Cir.).
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June 18, 2019
Federal Judge Says Government Owes Tribes For Mismanaging Funds
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States failed to prudently invest money at various times for three funds established to pay members of the Western Shoshone tribes for the government’s taking of their ancestral lands in Nevada and California without just compensation, a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge held June 13 (The Western Shoshone Identifiable Group, et al. v. United States, No. 06-896L, Fed. Clms.).
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June 18, 2019
Response Sought To Tribe’s Bid To Restore Indian Burial Ground At Casino
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama federal judge in a June 14 text only order gave the Poarch Band of Creek Indians more time to respond to another tribe’s claims that the Poarch Band illegally removed 57 bodies from an ancient burial ground to build a casino (Muscogee [Creek] Nation, et al. v. Poarch Band of Creek Indians, et al., No. 2:12-cv-1079, M.D. Ala.).
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June 17, 2019
Court Decides Double Jeopardy Case; Indian Woman’s Petition Awaits
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 17 affirmed that a person can be prosecuted for the same crime by separate sovereigns, such as a state and the United States in the decided case, with the ruling possibly also deciding an Indian woman’s double jeopardy claims for a federal manslaughter charge that followed her manslaughter conviction in a tribal court (Tawnya Bearcomesout v. United States, No. 17-6856, U.S. Sup.).
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June 17, 2019
Tribal Police Officers Denied Certiorari For Civil Rights Claims Against County
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A malicious prosecution case filed by three tribal police officers who were arrested by a California county over a tribal faction dispute at the tribe’s casino will not get U.S. Supreme Court review after the high court justices denied their petition for certiorari June 17 (Ronald Jones, at al. v. Michael Keitz, et al., No. 18-1333, U.S. Sup.).
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June 14, 2019
Opioid MDL Judge OKs Tribes’ Claims Except For Negligence Per Se
CLEVELAND — The Ohio federal judge overseeing the opioid multidistrict litigation on June 13 adopted almost all of a magistrate judge’s recommendations preserving the right of two Native American tribes to sue manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies (In Re: National Prescription Opioid Litigation, [Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Purdue Pharma L.P., et al., No. 18-op-45749, and The Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation v. AmerisourceBergen Drug Corporation, et al., No. 18-op-45749], MDL Docket No. 2804, No. 17-md-2804, N.D. Ohio, Eastern Div.).
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June 14, 2019
Groups File Briefs Supporting Fracking Company In Federal Lease Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a hydraulic fracturing industry trade group on June 12 filed separate amicus curiae briefs in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, each contending that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) cancellation of a fracking lease issued to Solenex LLC was “arbitrary and capricious” (Solenex LLC v. David Bernhardt, et al., No. 18-5345, D.C. Cir.).
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June 13, 2019
Errors Led To Dismissal Of Tribal Council’s Land Claims, Federal Circuit Told
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal court misinterpreted the law when it dismissed claims by an Arizona tribal council that the United States breached its fiduciary and trust duties by failing to collect $30.4 million from a property owner that is owed to the council’s trust under the Arizona-Florida Land Exchange Act of 1988, the council says in its June 10 opening brief on appeal in the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals (Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. v. United States, No. 19-01758, Fed. Cir.).
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June 13, 2019
Pipeline Appeals Mooted By Trump’s Issuance Of Permit, 9th Circuit Rules
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 6 dismissed appeals of a judge’s decision to halt work on the Keystone XL Pipeline due in part to threats to Native Americans’ land and water, ruling that the challenges are now moot because President Donald Trump issued a new permit allowing pipeline construction to continue (Indigenous Environmental Network, et al. v. U.S. Department of State, et al., Nos. 18-36068, 18-36069, 19-35036, 19-35064, 19-35099, 9th Cir., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 17095).
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June 10, 2019
High Court Rejects Petition Over $8.25 Million Award To Tribe For CERCLA Costs
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that an Indian tribe is entitled to recover more than $8.25 million in response costs from a Canadian industrial polluter stands after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 10 declined to review the case (Teck Metals Ltd. v. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, et al., No. 18-1160, U.S. Sup.).
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June 10, 2019
Justices Deny Cert For Tribal Tobacco Company’s Challenge To Taxation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Indian tobacco company must pay federal excise taxes on its products, despite the language of an 1855 treaty, after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 10 denied the company’s petition for certiorari, letting stand a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision (King Mountain Tobacco Co., Inc. v. United States, No. 18-984, U.S. Sup.).
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June 10, 2019
Washington Couples’ Tax Row With Tribes Will Not Get Supreme Court Review
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 10 declined to review a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals holding that sovereign immunity protects Washington Indian tribes from three couples’ quiet title injunction lawsuit challenging the tribes’ land use and excise tax laws (Thomas Mitchell, et al. v. Tulalip Tribes of Washington, No. 18-970, U.S. Sup.).
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June 7, 2019
Parties Say United States’ GVR Proposal For Tribe’s Tort Case Should Be Rejected
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court should decline the federal government’s suggestion to grant review, vacate and remand an Alabama Supreme Court decision that an Indian tribe is not protected by tribal sovereign immunity from tort claims in a car crash negligence suit, but should grant certiorari instead to reverse the state court’s ruling, the tribe and its casino business argue in a June 5 supplemental brief (Poarch Band of Creek Indians, et al. v. Casey Marie Wilkes, et al., No. 17-1175, U.S. Sup.).
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June 7, 2019
Fracking Company: Agency’s Lease Cancellation ‘Built Upon False Premises’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A hydraulic fracturing company on June 5 filed a brief in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals contending that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) cancellation of a fracking lease was “built upon false premises and dangerously wide-sweeping assertions of ‘inherent’ agency authority” (Solenex LLC v. David Bernhardt, et al., No. 18-5345, D.C. Cir.).