Mealey's Native American Law : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Native American Law

September 08, 2023
Kroger Agrees To Pay $1.2 Billion To Settle Nationwide Opioid Claims

CINCINNATI — Supermarket chain Kroger Co. has agreed to pay up to $1.2 billion to states and $36 million to Native American tribes to fund abatement efforts to settle the majority of pending or potential claims that the company failed to monitor suspicious opioid orders and created a public nuisance from the opioid addiction epidemic, according to the company’s Sept. 8 press release.
September 07, 2023
Employees Owed No Duty To Patron Who Died After Dispute In Tribal Casino Lot

TACOMA, Wash. — Employees of a tribal casino are not liable for negligence allegedly arising from the death of a casino patron who was thrown out of a moving car by her boyfriend in the casino’s parking lot because the employees were sued in their individual capacities and owed no duty to the patron, a Washington appellate panel found in affirming the trial court’s dismissal of the case.
September 06, 2023
Fracking Company To Relinquish Lease At Center Of Dispute With Federal Agency

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Sept. 5 entered an order approving the joint motion of a hydraulic fracturing company and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) for an abeyance pending approval of a settlement agreement in a long-running dispute over a lease the fracking company has agreed to surrender.
September 01, 2023
Calif. Federal Judge Dismisses Citizen Groups’ Claims Challenging Tribal Casino

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A citizen groups’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) claim is moot and its other claims challenging the Jamul Indian Village’s casino operations are futile because the village enjoys sovereign immunity, a California federal judge found in dismissing the groups’ claims without leave to amend.
September 01, 2023
Tribal Appellate Court Affirms Dismissal Of Drug Possession Charges

POPLAR, Mont. — If the Fort Peck Tribal Court erred in finding that drug residue was not a sufficient enough quantity to support a charge for unlawful possession of dangerous drugs, the error was irrelevant because the finding was one of two independent grounds for dismissal identified by the trial court, a Fort Peck Tribal Court of Appeals panel found in denying the Fort Peck Tribes’ appeal.
September 01, 2023
Virginia Federal Judge Decides Tribal Lending Dispute Won’t Be Arbitrated

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A class of individuals who claim that they were issued usurious loans by lenders affiliated with the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (the tribe) cannot be compelled to arbitrate because the contracts governing the loans violated public policy by waiving all state substantive remedies, a Virginia federal judge found in denying two motions to compel arbitration.
August 30, 2023
Suit Challenging Corps’ Reversion To 2020 WOTUS Rule Transferred To Georgia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has granted a motion by a mining company to transfer to the Southern District of Georgia a lawsuit by four environmental groups challenging a settlement that reinstated approval jurisdictional determinations (AJDs) for a Clean Water Act permit application based on the now-replaced 2020 waters of the United States (WOTUS) definition.
August 30, 2023
Federal Claims Court Judge Dismisses Tribal Leadership Recognition Dispute

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge granted the United States’ motion to dismiss claims brought against it by the Winnemucca Indian Colony, which alleges that it was monetarily damaged by the government’s failure to recognize its properly elected council, because the court lacks jurisdiction over the tribe’s claims for various reasons .
August 30, 2023
Illinois Federal Judge: Company Waived Right To Arbitrate Tribal Lending Claims

CHICAGO — A company that allegedly has been using its partnership with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe to unlawfully claim tribal sovereign immunity from the issuance of usurious loans cannot arbitrate claims arising from several loan agreements because it waived any right it might have had to arbitrate through its litigation conduct, an Illinois federal judge found in denying the company’s motion to compel arbitration.
August 29, 2023
Tribal Appellate Court In Montana Says Lower Court Correctly Applied Precedent

POPLAR, Mont. — The Fort Peck Tribal Court properly applied Fort Peck Court of Appeals’ case law in denying a defendant’s motion to dismiss counts of rape and family member assault against him in which he argued that a rape test must be performed for the case to proceed, a Court of Appeals panel found in denying the defendant’s appeal without prejudice.
August 25, 2023
Couple Who Says Resort’s Mask Policy Is Unconstitutional Failed To State Claims

PHOENIX — In granting two motions to dismiss, an Arizona federal judge found that a couple who were expelled from the Great Wolf Lodge in Phoenix after refusing to comply with the resort’s COVID-19 mask policy failed to state their claims of conspiracy and constitutional violations against the resort and that defendant Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community enjoys sovereign immunity from the claims.
August 22, 2023
Prisoner Invoking McGirt Denied Certificate Of Appealability By 10th Circuit

DENVER — A prisoner serving a 20-year sentence is not entitled to a certificate of appealability of a federal trial court order denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus under McGirt v. Oklahoma because he failed to show that reasonable jurists could debate whether the trial court was incorrect in denying his petition under the statute of limitations.
August 21, 2023
5th Circuit: District Court Erred In Dismissing Tribal Casino Conspiracy Claims

NEW ORLEANS — A federal trial court erred in dismissing with prejudice conspiracy claims brought by the former chief financial officer of a tribally owned casino in Louisiana because the court already determined that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction and was therefore not permitted to reach the merits of the case, a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in reversing the trial court’s judgment.
August 21, 2023
California High Court Agrees To Review Tribe’s Coronavirus Coverage Dispute

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court granted an Indian tribe insured’s petition to review a state appellate court’s finding that the insured and its experts failed to present sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the coronavirus caused property damage to the tribe’s casino and resort.
August 18, 2023
Federal Parental Kidnapping Law Does Not Apply To Tribes, 8th Circuit Says

ST. LOUIS — The Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA) does not apply to Indian tribes because the law makes no reference to tribes, which enjoy their own sovereignty, an Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in affirming a trial court’s dismissal of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a father who says his daughter is being unlawfully detained on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation.
August 15, 2023
Public Interest Law Group Focused On Youth Files Brief Opposing Willow Project

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A nonprofit public interest law group filed an amicus curiae brief in Alaska federal court in two separate-but-related cases related to an oil and gas development plan in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska known as the Willow Project, arguing that the additional greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the project will cause “further harm and endangerment to Youth.”
August 15, 2023
Utah, Counties Appeal Dismissal Of Case Against Biden’s National Monuments Decision

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah and two counties on Aug. 14 filed a notice of appeal stating that they are appealing to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a decision by a Utah federal judge which dismissed their case against the Biden administration for its decision to reinstate the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
August 15, 2023
10th Circuit Denies Inmate’s Request For Certificate Of Appealability Under McGirt

DENVER — The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma did not toll the one-year statute of limitations period for a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a prisoner in Oklahoma convicted of first-degree murder because he could have discovered earlier through due diligence that Oklahoma had no jurisdiction if his crime committed in Indian country, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in denying the prisoner’s request for a certificate of appealability on Aug. 14.
August 15, 2023
Calif. Federal Judge Grants Motion To Compel Arbitration In Tribal Loan Dispute

SAN DIEGO — Loan agreements with extremely high interest rates and arbitration provisions are not substantively or procedurally unconscionable because the two plaintiffs who took out the loans from an entity incorporated under the laws of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe failed to show that the agreements were contracts of adhesion or that their terms prospectively waived federal law protections, a California federal judge found in granting a nonsignatory company’s motion to compel arbitration.
August 11, 2023
Federal Judge: Arbitration Clause In Tribal Lending Agreement Is Unenforceable

CHICAGO — An arbitration provision in a lending agreement that allegedly contains a 775.30 percent interest rate and was signed by a “rent-a-tribe” lending operation is unenforceable under the prospective waiver doctrine and because the agreement is “substantively and procedurally unconscionable,” an Illinois federal judge held in denying the lending company’s motion to compel arbitration.
August 09, 2023
In Employment Dispute, 10th Circuit Affirms Order Sanctioning Utah Tribe

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah federal judge did not err in finding that the Ute Indian Tribe used arbitration proceedings to intimidate a potential future witness in one of a series of disputes among the tribe, one of its former employees and an independent contractor, the majority of a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found Aug. 8 in affirming the judge’s decision to sanction the tribe with attorney fees.
August 09, 2023
California Appeals Panel Affirms Court’s Rejection Of ‘Anticipated’ Water Pact

FRESNO, Calif. — A California appeals court affirmed dismissal of an action in which a water district sought to have the trial court validate an “anticipated contract” between the district and the United States for continued delivery of water from a federal reclamation project and repayment of federal water project funding.
August 08, 2023
10th Circuit: Retroactive Application Of McGirt Did Not Strip Man Of Due Process

DENVER — A federal trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying a motion to dismiss filed by an Indian man who was found guilty of committing voluntary manslaughter in Indian country and argued that he was deprived of due process by the retroactive application of a landmark U.S Supreme Court case that deprived Oklahoma of jurisdiction over such crimes, a 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the trial court’s judgment on Aug. 7.
August 08, 2023
Minnesota High Court: State Agency’s Request To EPA Was Procedurally Irregular

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Through irregular procedures, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to delay providing written comments regarding a combined National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System/State Disposal System (NPDES/SDS) permit before ultimately approving the permit for a proposed mine and process plant, the Minnesota Supreme Court held in remanding the permit to the MPCA.
August 08, 2023
S.D. Federal Judge Finds Court Lacks Jurisdiction To Hear Tribal Land Claims

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The court lacks jurisdiction to hear the claims of a woman who says federal employees fraudulently confiscated tribal land based on theories of sovereign immunity and lack of standing, a South Dakota federal judge held in dismissing the action sua sponte after the woman moved to proceed in forma pauperis.