Mealey's Native American Law
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December 06, 2022
Sauk-Suiattle Tribe Sues Washington Over Collection Of Retail Sales Tax
SEATTLE — The Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe in Washington filed a lawsuit Dec. 5 in federal court seeking to stop the state’s collection of retail sales taxes on products bought online and delivered to the tribe’s members on its reservation.
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December 05, 2022
6 New Mexico Residents Appeal Dismissal Of Challenge To State Water Adjudication
DENVER — Six New Mexico residents are appealing to the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals a federal court’s dismissal of their lawsuit seeking to counter a state court adjudication ruling involving Native American water rights in the state.
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December 05, 2022
Oklahoma Tribe’s Appeal Delayed For Ruling On Reconsideration Motion
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals put on hold an appeal by an Oklahoma Indian tribe until the trial court can decide the tribe’s request for reconsideration of dismissal of its second suit against the Department of the Interior (DOI) alleging that the tribe is part of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and beneficiary of an 1833 Creek treaty that gives it shared jurisdiction over the vast Creek Reservation.
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December 05, 2022
Federal Review Of Fracking Permits Was Insufficient, N.D. Tribe Tells 8th Circuit
ST. LOUIS — Federal government officials “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” in approving permits for a non-Indian energy company’s hydraulic fracturing well project along Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota on the reservation of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) Nation, the tribe says in an opening brief in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging a summary judgment ruling for the government defendants.
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December 02, 2022
Bank Allowed To Intervene In Suit Over Canceled Lease Between Tribe, Campground
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana federal judge on Dec. 1 allowed a bank that loaned money to a campground company to intervene in litigation between the company and the Blackfeet Indian Nation over the tribe’s cancelation of the lease for the campground land on its reservation.
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December 02, 2022
FBI, BIA Will Work Together On Enforcing The Law In Indian Country
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Dec. 1 that the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) have signed an agreement to improve law enforcement in Indian country, updating a memorandum of understanding that was first signed in the 1990s.
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December 01, 2022
In Gold King Mine MDL, Theories Of CERCLA Liability Are Rejected
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nearly three months after it was awarded judgment on the pleadings on claims of negligence in a case over the Gold King Mine blowout, a government contractor has won dismissal in New Mexico federal court of allegations that it is liable for contamination of the Animas and San Juan rivers as a transporter of impounded water.
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December 01, 2022
Without ‘Indian’ Children, Mother’s ICWA Claims Fail, Magistrate Judge Says
FRESNO, Calif. — A mother lacks standing to challenge California’s removal of her three children from her custody under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) because she is not a parent of an “Indian child” as defined in the statute, a federal magistrate judge in the state held Nov. 30 in dismissing her petition for review for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
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November 30, 2022
Claims Of Mother Of Tribal Member Killed By Police Sent To Rosebud Sioux Court
PIERRE, S.D. — A South Dakota federal judge granted most of three dismissal motions in a mother’s lawsuit against two police officers of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe for the shooting death of her son on the reservation, allowing one claim against the officers to stand, but then stayed the case to allow the mother to first exhaust her tribal court remedies.
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November 29, 2022
Judge Seeks Joint Solution From Wisconsin Tribe, Enbridge In Pipeline Nuisance Row
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin Indian tribe and the operators of a crude oil and natural gas pipeline were ordered by a federal judge on Nov. 28 to meet and come up with a joint plan to deal with a possible rupture of the pipe at a river crossing on the tribe’s reservation.
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November 29, 2022
Final Defendants Dismissed In Wrongful Prosecution Suit Against California Tribe
SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge dismissed all claims against the last two tribal court defendants in a contract dispute between a tribe and a gambling equipment company, finding that the company failed to state valid claims and the court officials are protected by personal immunity defenses.
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November 23, 2022
Groups Seek To Intervene In Case Over Dimensions Of National Monuments
SALT LAKE CITY — Environmental advocacy groups on Nov. 22 moved in Utah federal court seeking to intervene in a lawsuit pertaining to the dimensions of two national monuments, arguing that it is entitled to intervention as a matter of right under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a) because the size of the monuments has implications for potential hydraulic fracturing activity in the region.
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November 21, 2022
Crow Tribe’s Regulation Of Utility Ripe For Review, Co-Op Tells Supreme Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A rural electricity cooperative did not forfeit any arguments for its challenge to a tribal regulation that bars the termination of residential service during the winter, and a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the co-op is subject to the regulation “conflicts with case law from other circuits and binding precedent from this Court,” the co-op tells the U.S. Supreme Court in a Nov. 18 reply brief in support of certiorari.
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November 18, 2022
Indian Treaty Argument Does Not Support Relief For Prisoner, 6th Circuit Says
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a request from a man convicted of murder in Ohio for authorization to file a second habeas corpus petition after finding that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma does not apply to his case.
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November 17, 2022
Tribe Joins Challenge To Using Montana’s Unvaccinated Rights Law On Indian Land
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana federal judge allowed the Blackfeet Nation to intervene in a lawsuit seeking a declaration that the state’s Human Rights Bureau cannot enforce a COVID-19 vaccination anti-discrimination law on tribal land.
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November 16, 2022
FLSA Does Not Apply To Health Care Consortium For Native Alaskans, Judge Holds
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An employee of a regional health care provider for Native Alaskans cannot pursue unpaid wages claims against the provider under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because the statute “‘touches exclusive rights of [tribal] self-governance in purely intramural matters,’” a federal judge in the state held Nov. 15 in dismissing the worker’s complaint with prejudice, quoting the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ FLSA ruling in United States v. Farris.
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November 15, 2022
Judge: Blue Cross Must Produce Claims Data In Plan Dispute With Michigan Tribe
BAY CITY, Mich. — A Michigan federal judge on Nov. 14 directed an insurer in a long-running dispute with an Indian tribe over payments for certain hospital services to supplement prior disclosures with data for the health care claims at issue.
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November 15, 2022
Scholars Attack ‘Wrong Analysis’ In High Court Clash Over Tribal Sacred Site
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A trial court’s “egregiously wrong analysis and ruling on the significant religious liberty issues presented” in a dispute over the destruction of a sacred Native American site for a highway expansion in Oregon demands reversal and remand for a proper analysis, religious liberty law scholars tell the U.S. Supreme Court in an amicus curiae brief supporting review.
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November 14, 2022
Certiorari Opposed In Row Over Bankruptcy Code’s Abrogation Of Tribal Immunity
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals finding that the U.S. Bankruptcy Code abrogates Indian tribes’ sovereign immunity from suit is “firmly grounded in traditional methods of statutory interpretation and consistent with [U.S. Supreme Court] precedent on tribal immunity,” so certiorari is not warranted, a borrower who sued a Wisconsin tribe over its payday lending practices tells the high court.
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November 11, 2022
Oklahoma Can’t Regulate Coal Mining On Vast Indian Lands, Judge Says
OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma can no longer regulate surface coal mining activities in most of the state because that job is now in the hands of the federal government after the U.S. Supreme Court determined in McGirt v. Oklahoma that the historical reservation of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation still exists today and is under federal jurisdiction, a U.S. district court judge in the state ruled in granting federal defendants summary judgment.
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November 09, 2022
Supreme Court Hears Pros, Cons Of Indian Child Placement Law
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The constitutionality of a 1978 federal law designed to keep Native American adoptive and foster children with their Indian tribes was debated Nov. 9 before the U.S. Supreme Court in a three-plus-hour oral argument session for four consolidated cases.
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November 08, 2022
Crow Tribe Member Says Cert Not Needed For Utility’s Jurisdiction Challenge
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The question of whether an electricity cooperative is subject to a tribal regulation that bars the termination of residential service during the winter is not appropriate for U.S. Supreme Court review because the co-op has forfeited its chief arguments and there is no circuit split on the issue, a member of the Crow Tribe in Montana who had his power shut off in winter tells the high court in a Nov. 7 response brief filed at the court’s request.
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November 07, 2022
Oregon Seeks Remand Of Ranch Complaint Alleging Tribe’s Rights Took Its Water
MEDFORD, Ore. — After removing a complaint claiming that tribal water rights result in the uncompensated taking of a ranch’s property, the state of Oregon reversed course and moved to remand the case from federal to state court due to a dispute over whether removal took place within the specified time range.
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November 07, 2022
4 Years Later, Parties In Gila River Groundwater Case Still Not Talking Settlement
TUCSON, Ariz. — Parties in a lawsuit by a Native American tribe alleging that six individuals are using groundwater from the Gila River in Arizona without authorization tell a federal court that they continue to not be engaged in settlement discussions.
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November 07, 2022
Woman Takes Suit Against Officer Who Killed Brother To Fort Belknap Tribal Court
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A tribal member is heading to tribal court to litigate her wrongful death civil rights claims against the Fort Belknap Indian Community police officer who shot and killed her brother after a Montana federal magistrate judge on Nov. 4 granted her motion to dismiss her claims in favor of tribal court exhaustion.