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Plenary Power, Political Questions, And Sovereignty In Indian Affairs, Michalyn Steele
Plenary Power, Political Questions, And Sovereignty In Indian Affairs, Michalyn Steele
Faculty Scholarship
A generation of Indian law scholars has roundly, and rightly, criticized the Supreme Court’s invocation of the political question doctrine to deprive tribes of meaningful judicial review when Congress has acted to the detriment of tribes. Similarly, many Indian law scholars view the plenary power doctrine — that Congress has expansive, virtually unlimited authority to regulate tribes — as a tool that fosters and formalizes the legal oppression of Indian people by an unchecked Federal government. The way courts have applied these doctrines in tandem has frequently left tribes without meaningful judicial recourse against breaches of the federal trust responsibility …
Comparative Institutional Competency And Sovereignty In Indian Affairs, Michalyn Steele
Comparative Institutional Competency And Sovereignty In Indian Affairs, Michalyn Steele
Faculty Scholarship
While vigorous debate surrounds the proper scope and ambit of inherent tribal authority, there remains a critical antecedent question: whether Congress or the courts are ultimately best situated to define the contours of inherent tribal authority. In February 2013, Congress enacted controversial tribal jurisdiction provisions as part of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization recognizing and affirming inherent tribal authority to prosecute all persons, including non-Indian offenders, for crimes of domestic violence in Indian country. This assertion by Congress of its authority to set the bounds of tribal inherent authority -- beyond where the United States Supreme Court has held …
Two Sides Of The Same Coin: The Potential Normative Power Of American Cities And Indian Tribes, Kevin J. Worthen
Two Sides Of The Same Coin: The Potential Normative Power Of American Cities And Indian Tribes, Kevin J. Worthen
Faculty Scholarship
People do not normally associate cities with Indian reservations. The mental images typically conjured by each term are radically different. Perhaps for that reason, few think of city governments and tribal governments in similar terms.
However, the two forms of government - cities and Indian reservations - have many things in common. Both are excluded from the federal constitutional framework. Both are subject to the plenary power of one of the constitutionally recognized governments - cities to the state government, tribes to the federal government. Both are the most intimate form of government with which most of their residents are …
Shedding New Light On An Old Debate: A Federal Indian Law Perspective On Congressional Authority To Limit Federal Question Jurisdiction, Kevin J. Worthen
Shedding New Light On An Old Debate: A Federal Indian Law Perspective On Congressional Authority To Limit Federal Question Jurisdiction, Kevin J. Worthen
Faculty Scholarship
Examining the ongoing debate concerning congressional power to eliminate federal court jurisdiction over cases arising under federal law from thefederal Indian law viewpoint allows consideration of the issues in a concrete setting. Experience under the Indian Civil Rights Act during the last twenty years indicates that some federal review of actions arising under federal law is needed if the command of the supremacy clause is to be fully effectuated. At the same time, it indicates that a uniform interpretation of that federal law is not essential to the enforcement of the clause. This examination thus provides support for the distributive …