Law Commons^™

From Intent To Effect: Richmond, Virginia, And The Protracted Struggle For Voting Rights, 1965–1977, Julian Maxwell Hayter

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Twelve years after the ratification of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 [VRA], Richmond, Virginia elected a historic majority black city council. The 5-4 majority quickly appointed an African American lawyer named Henry Marsh, III to the mayoralty. Marsh, a nationally celebrated civil rights litigator, was not only the city’s first black mayor, but the council election of 1977 was also Richmond’s first since 1970. In 1972, a federal district court used the VRA’s preclearance clause in Section 5 to place a moratorium on council contests. This moratorium lasted until the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice determined whether …

Indian Religious Freedom: Recognized/Denied, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Clinton's sacred site executive order applies to all "federal lands" and to all "recognized" Indian tribes. A "sacred site" is defined as "any specific, discrete, narrowly delineated location of Federal land that is identified by an Indian tribe, or Indian individual... as sacred by virtue of its established religious significance to, or ceremonial use by, an Indian religion; provided that the tribe or appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion has informed the agency of the existence of such a site."

The issue that seemed most troublesome from William Downes' legal perspective, besides the alleged Establishment clause violation, was that …

Tribal-State Affairs: The Next Proving Ground?, David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

While these more profound issues of structure and perception beg for solution, a more immediate problem has arisen with the advent of Republican dominance in the Congress. One of the likely outgrowths of this transference of political power is that Congress, along with the Supreme Court, which has been doing it for some time, may funnel more issues to the States and their subsidiary governments for resolution or administration. Such a transfer does not bode well for tribes. Remember the allotment of Indian lands (1880s-1930s) and the Termination of tribes (1950s-1960s)? Those policies essentially made tribes and their citizens subject …

Transformations In Supreme Court Thought: The Irresistible Force (Federal Indian Law & Policy) Meets The Movable Object (American Indian Tribal Status), David E. Wilkins

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This article is a content analysis examination of 107 federal court cases involving American Indian tribal sovereignty and federal plenary power rendered between 1870 and 1921. Our focus, however, is the U.S. Supreme Court's Indian Law jurisprudence; thus ninety of the cases analyzed were Supreme Court opinions. The cases seemingly entail two separate braces of opinions. One brace included decisions which affirmed tribal sovereignty. The other brace entailed cases which negatively affected tribal sovereignty. These negative decisions generally relied on doctrines such as plenary power, the political question doctrine, or the so- called “guardian-ward” relationship. We argue that the Supreme …