Indigenous, Indian, and Aboriginal Law Commons^™

Addressing The Root Of Housing Insecurity: Washington Should Divest From “Crime-Free” Housing Programs, Sarah Cerdena

Seattle University Law Review

Crime-Free Rental Housing Properties (CFRHPs) have proven to be an ineffective and inequitable approach to public safety. Often, tenants in these properties are evicted—at times, extrajudicially—as a result of conduct that does not rise to violations of their lease provisions, much less criminal behavior. By placing extraordinary power in the hands of local law enforcement to carry out these ordinances, CFRHPs predictably pose significant harm to Black and Latinx communities, survivors of domestic violence, disabled tenants, and low-income tenants generally. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court grappled with the tensions arising between CFRHPs and the enforcement of Washington landlord-tenant law. …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

Esg Investing Breaches Erisa Fiduciary Duties? A Closer Look At Spence V. American Airlines, Inc., Eric Chin-Ru Chang

Seattle University Law Review

In Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas found that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duties due to BlackRock’s ESG investing practices. Contrary to some reports suggesting that the ruling prohibits ESG investing under ERISA, a closer look at the ruling shows that the court only targeted American Airlines’ failure to manage conflicts of interest appropriately, rather than the legality of ESG investing itself. In light of the intensifying ESG backlash in the United States, this Article cautions against further restrictive measures on ESG investing. Such measures would exacerbate the widening …

Mandating Fluoride: A Constitutional Exercise Of Police Power, Anita Jahangiri

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses the ongoing debate over fluoridation: the regulation of fluoride levels in public water systems. Extensive research indicates fluoridation, when regulated at the recommended concentration, is both safe and highly effective in preventing dental caries. Better known as cavities, dental caries is a preventable yet widespread health issue that disproportionately affects low-income populations. Reducing dental health disparities among economic classes is a pressing public health issue. Fluoridation is not merely a policy option, but a critical, proven tool to address such disparities and uphold the collective welfare of Washingtonians. This Note focuses on fluoridation as a public health …

Neurodiversity In The Courtroom: Expanding Jury Service Accessibility Beyond Physical Disability, Samantha L. Mabe

Seattle University Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act has required equal access to jury service for decades; however, efforts to accommodate jurors with disabilities have been slow to develop beyond some minor accommodations for physical disabilities. While neurodivergent people frequently struggle to navigate a world catered toward neurotypical people, jury service remains inaccessible for many neurodivergent people who need accommodations to attend trial and engage in jury deliberations. If courts and advocates do not consider how to develop accommodations to secure the service of neurodivergent jurors, they will miss out on the unique skillsets that neurodivergent people can bring to resolving disputes.

Disabled …

The Power Of ‘Net Zero’: Seductive Dispossession On The Critical Minerals Frontier, Dayna Scott

Articles & Book Chapters

This article draws on insights gained from many years of community-engaged work alongside Neskantaga First Nation, a small remote Anishinaabe community in Treaty No.9, whose Indigenous homelands are being pressured by the global thirst for critical minerals. In line with recent writing on 'green extractivism', I detail how mining's new legitimacy in the boreal peatlands of the far north of Ontario, Canada, gained strength over the past decade from a pitch that associates it with battery metals for electric vehicles, and thus the transition to a 'net-zero' economy. The seduction obscures the social and ecological destruction that mining entails, and …

Another Broken Promise: The Mmiwg2s Crisis And The Violation Of The Federal Indian Trust Obligation, Marley Forest

Washington Law Review

Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit people go missing and are murdered at rates nearly ten times the national average in the United States. This disproportionate epidemic of violence has been labeled the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit (MMIWG2S) crisis. Several factors exacerbate this crisis. First, European colonizers used violence against Native people, especially women and Two-Spirit people, as a tactic of control and domination since first contact in the 1600s. Second, nearly two hundred years of legislative actions and case law have effectively stripped Native Nations of all criminal jurisdictional power over crimes committed on their land …

Tribal Sovereign Immunity: Absolute Authority Or Accountability, Kekek Jason Stark

Faculty Law Review Articles

In the wake of the recent United States Supreme Court decision of Trump v. United States, the Court determined that the President as Chief Executive is immune from conduct associated with official acts. The question that emanates from this opinion is how will this decision affect Indian Country and tribal court determinations of tribal sovereign immunity? This article will attempt to address this question. I begin with the Anishinaabe story of Bebaamosed miinawaa Gawigoshko’iweshiinh (The Trickster and the Little Scary Bird) in an attempt to understand the complicated nature of tribal sovereign immunity. As we reflect upon this story, …

Tribal Sovereign Immunity: Absolute Authority Or Accountability, Kekek Jason Stark

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In the wake of the recent United States Supreme Court decision of Trump v. United States, the Court determined that the President as Chief Executive is immune from conduct associated with official acts.3 The question that emanates from this opinion is how will this decision affect Indian Country and tribal court determinations of tribal sovereign immunity? This article will attempt to address this question. I begin with the Anishinaabe story of Bebaamosed miinawaa Gawigoshko’iweshiinh (The Trickster and the Little Scary Bird)5 in an attempt to understand the complicated nature of tribal sovereign immunity.

Discovering The Doctrine Of Discovery, Douglas Lind

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The doctrine of discovery is a concept in crisis. A principle of public international law associated with the so-called Age of Discovery, the doctrine of discovery is commonly said to have authorized European nations to claim the lands of indigenous peoples and establish settlements on the basis of “discovery” alone. Today, with good reason, the doctrine is widely condemned. The United Nations has denounced it as “the very foundation of genocide.” Describing its manifest injustices against indigenous cultures, dominion, and sovereignty as “devastating, far-reaching and intergenerational,” the UN Economic and Social Council has called for the doctrine to be categorically …

Uses And Abuses Of Johnson V. M’Intosh In Native American Land Rights Cases: Investigative Insights From The Indian Law Justice Files, John P. Lavelle

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The 200th anniversary of the foundational Indian law decision Johnson v. M’Intosh has come and gone, with many scholars contributing criticism and commentary. The dominant focus has been the case’s notorious embrace of the so-called “doctrine of discovery,” an odious theory for rationalizing European nations’ claims of superior rights to lands occupied by Indigenous Native American peoples. Commanding less attention, however, is the Johnson decision’s core protective legal feature, i.e., its reinforcing the United States government’s duty to guard against the alienation of Indian lands through private, unauthorized acquisitions.

Indian Casinos Under The Big Sky: Why Tribes In Other States Have Been More Successful With Gaming And The Path Forward For Montana’S Tribes, Trevor Funseth

Public Land & Resources Law Review

The most successful method of economic development for many Indian tribes in the United States has been gaming. Tribes across the country have risen out of poverty through their casino operations and have been able to use the profits to diversify their investments and improve tribal infrastructure, education, and social programs.

Damned If You Do, Dammed If You Don’T: Solutions For The Snake River And The Nez Perce Tribe, Meridian S. Wappett

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Indian Water Rights Settlements And The Animas-La Plata Project: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Of Dependency, Sidney Paulina Williams

Public Land & Resources Law Review

No abstract provided.

Making Sense Of The State's Duty To Negotiate In Good Faith Under Igra: The "Permits Such Gaming" Requirement And Legitimate State Interests In Gaming Compact Negotiations, Kathryn R.L. Rand, Steven Andrew Light

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

Under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), a tribe may conduct Class III or casino-style gaming only in a state that “permits such gaming” and in accordance with an approved compact between the tribe and the state. But the appropriate interpretation of IGRA’s “permits such gaming” requirement and how it relates to the state’s duty to negotiate gaming compacts in good faith remain murky more than 35 years after IGRA was enacted, hindering both compact negotiations between individual states and tribes and the entire tribal gaming industry. In this Article, we clarify and develop legal standards to apply to …

Loper Bright And The Future Of Indian Gaming: Navigating Igra's Ambiguities, William Smithers

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Re-Imagine Paradise: The Impacts Of The Illegal Annexation Of Hawai'i & Tourism On Native Hawaiians, Paige Edwards

SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research

This literature review presents a vital exploration of colonialism, the illegal annexation of Hawai’i, and the subsequent emergence of the tourism industry as a neocolonial enterprise. Neocolonialism is the process of colonial dominance through modern exploitation, which is masked through economic opportunities and has left territories and their native people dependent on it. By tracing the major historical events in Hawai’i highlights how education was a vital aspect of Native Hawaiian culture, empowering its people - a stark contrast to the current education system where the education system perpetuates the commodification of Native Hawaiian culture. Education has played a pivotal …

Volume 48 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Keynote Address: Community Over Constitution, Riddhi Mukhopadhyay

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, Riddhi Mukhopadhyay challenges the veneration of the U.S. Constitution by highlighting its origins in exclusion and its continued failure to protect marginalized communities. Drawing from her experience in civil legal aid and gender justice, she argues that the Constitution was drafted to consolidate power among white, wealthy men and continues to reflect that legacy through racial, gender, and class-based inequities. While acknowledging the significance of constitutional amendments and landmark cases, Mukhopadhyay emphasizes that meaningful change has always come from community-led action, not top-down reform. Additionally, Mukhopadhyay calls on lawyers and legal advocates to center community, practice …

The Lost Child: A Critique On Transracial Adoption Rhetoric, Hallie Conyers-Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

Transracial adoption in the United States reflects a deeply rooted history of colonialism, cultural assimilation, and racial hierarchy, masked by rhetoric focused on the “best interest of the child.” The author critiques that rhetoric and traces how adoption practices and policies, both domestic and international, have evolved to reinforce systemic inequities. Through historical analysis of the forced adoption of Native American, Black, and Asian children, it reveals how the best interest standard has been wielded not to protect children but to uphold political and racial ideologies. The author argues that the prevailing adoption framework relies on child-saving and color-blind narratives …