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Indian Claims In The Courts Of The Conqueror, Nell Jessup Newton

Journal Articles

The Federal Circuit reviews Indian claims because Congress combined the former Court of Claims, which had jurisdiction over Indian claims, with the Court of Patent and Customs Appeals to create the new Claims Court. The jurisdiction of the Court of Claims also included some patent cases as well as tax, contract, pay suits, takings cases, and congressional reference cases. Congress added the Court of Claims to this mix in part to counter the argument that the two new courts, the Claims Court and the Federal Circuit, would become overly specialized.

Indian claims comprise only a tiny portion of the jurisdiction …

Permanent Legislation To Correct Duro V. Reina, Nell Jessup Newton

Journal Articles

In Duro v. Reinal the Supreme Court held that Indian tribal courts do not have criminal jurisdiction over nonmember Indians. In so doing the Court extended its earlier holding in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, which had prevented tribes from exercising criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians and struck a serious blow to tribal sovereignty. The Oliphant decision has been soundly criticized as ahistorical and even dishonest, as well as essentially ethnocentric. The case also posed grave dangers to tribal people, because of the great number of nonmember Indians who live and work on Indian reservations, and the fact that nonmembers fall …