Law Commons^™

Case Law On American Indians: October 2022 - August 2023, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Legal Issues In Tribal E-Commerce, Adam Crepelle

American University Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

White Tape And Indian Wards: Removing The Federal Bureaucracy To Empower Tribal Economies And Self-Government, Adam Crepelle

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

American Indians have the highest poverty rate in the United States, and dire poverty ensnares many reservations. With no private sector and abysmal infrastructure, reservations are frequently likened to third-world countries. Present-day Indian poverty is a direct consequence of present-day federal Indian law and policy. Two-hundred-year-old laws premised on Indian incompetency remain a part of the U.S. legal system; accordingly, Indian country is bound by heaps of federal regulations that apply nowhere else in the United States. The federal regulatory structure impedes tribal economic development and prevents tribes from controlling their own resources.

This Article asserts the federal regulatory “white …

Upper Skagit Indian Tribe V. Lundgren, Brett Berntsen

Public Land & Resources Law Review

Stemming from a property dispute between a private landowner and the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, this action evolved into a debate concerning the scope of tribal sovereign immunity and whether Indian tribes should be bound by certain common law doctrines applicable to most other sovereigns. The Washington Supreme Court originally ruled against the Tribe, citing County of Yakima v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Nation in holding that sovereign immunity does not apply to in rem actions. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to clarify that its ruling in Yakima did not support such a proposition. The case …

Bystander No More? Improving The Federal Response To Sexual Violence In Indian Country, Sarah Deer

Utah Law Review

For better or worse, the federal government has taken responsibility for providing for the protection of Native people. So long as the federal government refuses to allow tribes to govern themselves completely and independently, it is imperative that the federal government enact policies empowering Native survivors of sexual assault. The federal government must do more to protect tribal members from sexual predators, to safeguard reservations not only from career criminals but also to ensure that federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Services do not hire men with a history of violence against women or …

Tribal Jurisdiction—A Historical Bargain, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Leah Jurss

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Untangling The Court’S Sovereignty Doctrine To Allow For Greater Respect Of Tribal Authority In Addressing Domestic Violence, Lauren Oppenheimer

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Traditional Problems: How Tribal Same-Sex Marriage Bans Threaten Tribal Sovereignty, Marcia Zug

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tribes As Innovative Environmental "Laboratories", Elizabeth Ann Kronk Warner

University of Colorado Law Review

Tribes are not vestiges of the past, but laboratories of the future. - Vine Deloria, Jr1. Indian tribes, because of their distinctive regulatory authority and significant connection to the environment, possess unique capacities to innovate within the field of environmental law in the over fifty-six million acres that make up Indian country. This Article-the first scholarly work to address this aspect of tribal environmental law advocates for the idea of tribes as "laboratories" for examining environmental regulation. Tribes enact environmental regulation by two primary means-in their capacity as "tribes as states" (TAS) and in their capacity as inherent sovereigns-both of …

Western Montana Water Users Assoc., Llc V. Mission Irrigation District, David A. Bell

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The Western Montana Water Users challenged the authority of the Flathead Joint Control Board to enter into a Water Use Agreement with Tribal, State, and Federal governments. This procedural challenge alleged that the Joint Control Board, made up of the irrigation districts, did not have the ability under Montana statutes to act for the irrigators without a specific vote of the members and approval from the district court. Two days after receiving the case the Montana Supreme Court reversed, determining that the statutes were inapplicable and the Joint Control Board had authority to enter the agreement.

Introduction To The Iachr Report On Indigenous And Tribal Peoples' Rights Over Their Ancestral Lands And Natural Resources: Norms And Jurisprudence Of The Inter-American Human Rights System, Taiawagi Helton

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Federal Preemption: A Roadmap For The Application Of Tribal Law In State Courts, Jackie Gardina

American Indian Law Review

This article contends that state courts are not necessarily free to apply state law when the courts are exercising concurrent adjudicative jurisdiction with tribal courts. Instead, Indian law principles of preemption direct state courts to apply tribal law in certain cases. A guiding principle emerges from the preemption analysis: if a tribe has legislative jurisdication over the dispute, tribal law must ordinarily be applied. In these instances, a state's laws, including its choice-of-law rules, are preempted by federal common law because their application interferes with the federal government's and the tribes' interest in promoting tribal self-government, including the tribes' ability …

Connecting The Dots Between The Constitution, The Marshall Trilogy, And United States V. Lara: Notes Toward A Blueprint For The Next Legislative Restoration Of Tribal Sovereignty, Ann E. Tweedy

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This law review Article examines: (1) the underpinnings of tribal sovereignty within the American system; (2) the need for restoration based on the Court's drastic incursions on tribal sovereignty over the past four decades and the grave circumstances, particularly tribal governments' inability to protect tribal interests on the reservation and unchecked violence in Indian Country, that result from the divestment of tribal sovereignty; (3) the concept of restoration as illuminated by United States v. Lara, and finally (4) some possible approaches to partial restoration.

The Article first evaluates the constitutional provisions relating to Indians and the earliest federal Indian law …

A Tale Of Conflicting Sovereignties: The Case Against Tribal Sovereign Immunity And Federal Preemption Doctrines Preventing States' Enforcement Of Campaign Contribution Regulations On Indian Tribes, Paul Porter

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note will discuss whether Indian tribes can assert tribal sovereign immunity to avoid compliance with state campaign finance regulation and whether such regulations should be preempted by federal law. Tribal sovereign immunity is not an enshrined constitutional imperative; it exists only under federal common law and can be limited by the courts from blocking state suits to enforce campaign finance regulations against tribes. This Note will also argue that state campaign finance regulations should not be preempted by federal law because states have a compelling interest in protecting their political processes from corruption that outweighs tribal interests in flouting …

Choosing Tribal Law: Why State Choice-Of-Law Principles Should Apply To Disputes With Tribal Contacts, Katherine J. Florey

American University Law Review

The Supreme Court has, in recent years, developed a detailed set of rules governing whether cases with tribal contacts should be heard in a state or tribal forum. It is therefore all the more remarkable that courts considering such cases have devoted almost no attention to the question of which law should apply once a forum has been chosen. Instead, courts have broadly assumed, without explicit consideration of the issue, that the forum in which the case is brought will apply its own law. Where state courts are concerned, two problems exist with this approach. First, the assumption that state …

The Potential Passage Of Proposed Senate Bill 578 And Its Implication On Hicks V. Nevada And Twenty Years Of Supreme Court Jurisprudence, Richard L. Warren

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tribal Employment Separation: Tribal Law Enigma, Tribal Governance Paradox, And Tribal Court Conundrum, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Each year, more and more people--Indians and non-Indians--are employed by Indian Tribes and Tribally-chartered organizations. However, as Tribal employment grows, so do the problems associated with personnel disputes. Tribal employment is different than traditional corporate or even government employment because Tribal communities are incredibly close-knit and Tribal governments are very accountable to their constituents. Because of this dynamic, employment separations can create excessive difficulty within a Tribe. Many Tribal courts apply the principles of the Supreme Court's decision in Loudermill, granting terminated employees the right to both an administrative and judicial hearing. However, these processes can often be incredibly painful …

Uniform Laws And Tribal Legislation; One Tribe's Perspective, Truman Carter, Fred H. Miller

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Pluralisms: The Indian New Deal As A Model, Dalia Tsuk

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

A Jurisdictional Quandary: Challenges Facing Tribal Governments In Implementing The Full Faith And Credit Provisions Of The Violence Against Women Acts, Melissa L. Tatum

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Context And Legitimacy In Federal Indian Law, Philip P. Frickey

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Frank Pommersheim, Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and Contemporary Tribal Life

The Repeal Of Article 8: Law, Government, And Cultural Politics At Akwesasne, William A. Starna

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Developing A Tribal Common Law Jurisprudence: The Navajo Experience 1969-1992, Daniel L. Lowery

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Crow Dog's Case: A Chapter In The Legal History Of Tribal Sovereignty, Sidney L. Harring

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Liberties Guarantees Under Tribal Law: A Survey Of Civil Rights Provisions In Tribal Constitutions, Elmer R. Rusco

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Immunity In Indian Tribal Law, Ralph W. Johnson, James M. Madden

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.