Law Commons^™

Sacred In The City: The Huron Indian Cemetery And The Preservation Laws, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

The Huron Indian Cemetery sits on a hill above the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas Rivers. It is several acres of predominant green, with grass, mature trees, and modest, weathered grave stones, surrounded by the sterile concrete of a struggling Midwestern city. Desultory businesses, colorless governmental offices, a casino, and strong evidence of poverty and vandalism lap at the shores of the small sanctuary. Yet despite the drab and essential joylessness of the encircling faded modernity, the cemetery holds a surprising sense of peace and even timelessness. The serenity may seem incongruous, not only because of the tawdry surroundings, …

Supreme Court Report 2007-2008, Julie M. Cheslik, Aimee L. Morrison, Tyler J. Scott

Faculty Works

This article reviews the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court for the 2007-2008 Term that are of particular relevance to state and local governments including those involving voting and elections, speech, class-of-one equal protection claims, immunity, taxation, preemption, and the Fourth and Sixth Amendments.

Against the backdrop of the 2008 presidential election between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, and an economy plagued by recession and federal bailouts of the finance and mortgage industries, the Court continued in a largely conservative vein, reflecting the policies and predilections of the majority of justices. The Court reasserted its distaste for unfettered …

Treaty-Based Exclusions From The Boundaries And Jurisdiction Of The States, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

The Johnson County, Kansas codes officer, charged with the personal service of citations for the unlawful sale of fireworks on Shawnee Reserve 206, probably should have mailed them, as had been done in the past. On the other hand, Jim Oyler, Jr., who was fortunate to escape prosecution after pushing an official around and breaking his cell phone a year and a half earlier, probably should have shown restraint. Tensions run high on Lot 206, however, and restraint has seldom been the watchword. Jim Oyler, Jr., when confronting the officer on the roadway leading into the 94-acre parcel, asserted the …

Some Philosophical, Political And Legal Implications Of American Archeological And Anthropological Theory, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

Archaeological and anthropological theories about the origins and practices of ancient peoples, and about events and histories, distant in time, but blending into the present, have had impacts that transcend the tenets and borders of the sciences as discrete disciplines. Our suppositions about the factual past can influence our present beliefs - not only our understandings and conclusions about the tangible and practical - but our feelings and faiths about the intangible and the spiritual as well. Our values, principles, world views, and cosmologies may thus be shaped by our scientific backdrop. Beyond this, our social activity, our national policy, …

The United Tribe Of Shawnee Indians: Resurrection In The Twentieth Century, John W. Ragsdale Jr

Faculty Works

Tribal sovereignty is not necessarily a function of land area, population size or competitive significance. The essence lies in the freedom to make or recognize rules and principals of personal conduct and social order. This essential liberty springs from the community between particular people, their past, future and their sacred land base. The legislative history of the Federal Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 states that recognition of a tribe is critical, not just to the tribe's interests, but to the legitimacy of federal power, as the Constitution empowers Congress to legislate only with respect to Indian tribes rather …