Mealey's Native American Law : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Native American Law

July 07, 2023
7th Circuit: Inter-Tribal Council Has Sovereign Immunity From Employment Claims

CHICAGO — A federal trial court properly dismissed the claims of a man who alleged that he was improperly fired by a nonprofit consortium of federally recognized Indian tribes because the consortium maintains the sovereign immunity of its members, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in affirming the trial court’s decision.
July 07, 2023
No Need For Supreme Court Review Of Tribe’s Petition Over Fish Passage, Seattle Says

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Washington Indian tribe fails to present an issue that is worthy of U.S. Supreme Court consideration in its efforts to have a fish passageway built at one of Seattle’s hydroelectric dams, so its petition for certiorari should be denied, the city and its hydroelectricity agency say in an opposition brief filed July 6 at the request of the court.
July 06, 2023
Native Alaskans, Others Say Willow Project Wrongly Approved, Federal Law Violated

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Native American group and environmental organizations filed an amended complaint in Alaska federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against federal agencies for their decision to approve the Willow Master Development Plan for the hydraulic fracturing operation referred to as the Willow Project, arguing that the plan was wrongly approved because it violates multiple federal laws.
June 28, 2023
Dismissal Of DUI Case Reversed By Tribe’s Appeals Court Due To Virus Closures

PABLO, Mont. — A Montana Indian tribe’s appellate court reversed the dismissal of a woman’s drunken driving charges for lack of a speedy trial, finding that the tribe had the authority to close the tribal court due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that the defendant “was not unduly burdened in the legal sense by any pandemic-related delays of her criminal trial.”
June 27, 2023
Expert Testimony Admissible But Lay Witness Testimony Leads To Reversal

DENVER — The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 26 reversed a man’s conviction for sexually abusing his stepdaughters after finding that the trial court erred in allowing the girls’ mother to testify on their credibility but found no error in allowing other expert testimony.
June 23, 2023
Federal Judge: Trespassing Pipeline On Tribal Land Must Be Shut Down In 3 Years

MADISON, Wis. — An Indian tribe is entitled to permanent injunctive relief and monetary damages for the past and continued trespass of an oil pipeline that crosses the tribe’s reservation because it runs along easements that have expired and the threat of rupture has increased due to the movement of a river, a Wisconsin federal judge held in ordering the pipeline’s owner and operator to cease operations on the reservation within three years.
June 22, 2023
Split Supreme Court Denies Navajo Nation’s Bid For Water Accounting

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States does not have a duty under an 1868 peace treaty to take “affirmative steps” to provide a water supply for the Navajo Nation, the U.S. Supreme Court held June 22 in a 5-4 decision, reversing a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling.
June 21, 2023
New York Federal Judge: State Can Regulate Fishing Practices Off Reservation Land

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — The Unkechaug Indian Nation’s off-reservation fishing practices are subject to New York regulations that protect the American eel species because the regulations are not preempted by federal law, an order signed by a colonial administrator granting fishing rights is not a treaty in effect today and the nation is not entitled to relief under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, a New York federal judge held in granting summary judgment in favor of a state agency that enforces the regulations.
June 19, 2023
Until State Remedies Exhausted, Federal Judge Won’t Hear Indian Country Arguments

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A prisoner who argues that Oklahoma does not have jurisdiction over him because he is an Indian and his crimes were committed in Indian country must exhaust all state remedies before seeking habeas relief in federal court, an Oklahoma federal judge held in granting a warden’s motion to dismiss the prisoner’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
June 19, 2023
Judgment Granted To Insurer In Row With Assignees Over Policy’s Fraud Exclusion

MIAMI — A Florida federal judge granted an insurer’s cross-motion for summary judgment in a suit filed against it by assignees of its insured, an attorney who settled an underlying lawsuit filed against him by the assignees, finding that the insurance policy at issue excluded coverage for the insured’s fraudulent conduct that resulted in his disbarment.
June 19, 2023
2nd Circuit Affirms Conviction Of Man Who Defrauded Indian Agency

NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and one-year federal prison sentence for a man who conspired to issue bonds to defraud a Native American organization, ruling that the defendant’s law-of-the-case doctrine argument “defies logic and the clear law of this Circuit.”
June 15, 2023
Supreme Court: Bankruptcy Code Abrogates Tribe’s Sovereign Immunity

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an 8-1 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 15 found that the U.S. Bankruptcy Code abrogates tribal sovereign immunity in the case of a man who had obtained a loan from a tribe’s lending business and then filed for bankruptcy protection.
June 15, 2023
Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality Of Indian Child Placement Law

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a 1978 federal law designed to keep Native American adoptive and foster children with their Indian tribes, does not violate the U.S. Constitution and is consistent with Congress’ authority, a divided U.S. Supreme Court held June 15.
June 14, 2023
Death, Injury Suit Over Washout On Reservation Correctly Dismissed, Panel Says

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A North Dakota federal court lacked jurisdiction under the discretionary function exception of the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) to hear a suit filed against the United States for the deaths of two people and injuries to two others after a road culvert on an Indian reservation was washed away in heavy rains and they unknowingly drove off the road and into the floodwaters below, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in affirming dismissal of the action.
June 13, 2023
Florida Panel: Tribe Not Shown To Have Waived Immunity From COVID-Related Tort Claim

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court granted the Seminole Tribe’s petition to prohibit a trial court from proceeding with a negligence claim brought by a patron who said he contracted COVID-19 at the tribe’s casino, finding that the patron failed to demonstrate that the tribe waived sovereign immunity because the patron failed to follow the pre-suit procedures laid out in the compact in which the tribe waived its sovereign immunity for tort claims committed at its gaming facilities.
June 12, 2023
Mich. Tribes File Clean Water Act Claims Against Food Processor In Federal Court

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — According to a complaint filed in a Michigan federal court by a group of Indian tribes and environmental advocacy groups, a food processor has violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Michigan state law by discharging contaminated wastewater from its food processing plant into a nearby creek.
June 09, 2023
Bureau Of Indian Affairs Properly Partitioned Land, Montana Federal Judge Says

BILLINGS, Mont. — The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) properly partitioned a piece of land among four groups despite taking away some land from the majority owner because the parties owned the land as tenants in common and their percent interest did not correlate to a percent of acreage, a Montana federal judge held in partly granting a motion for summary judgment filed by the majority owner.
June 07, 2023
8th Circuit Quashes Tribal Parties’ Subpoenas In Election Redistricting Suit

ST. LOUIS — The legislative privilege shields lawmakers in North Dakota from complying with subpoenas issued by two Indian tribes and three Native American voters who are challenging the state’s redrawn legislative districts, a divided Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held June 6, reversing a federal court’s ruling allowing the discovery requests.
June 07, 2023
Oregon Water District Asks Supreme Court To Nix Tribes’ ‘Veto’ Of Adjudications

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Oregon water district has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that it says gives two Native American tribes “veto” power over state water rights adjudications in the Klamath Basin.
June 06, 2023
9th Circuit: Oregon Water District Can’t Force Remand Of Lawsuit To State Court

SAN FRANCISCO — In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 5 said a federal district court did not err by refusing to remand a federal water release lawsuit by the Klamath Irrigation District (KID) against the Bureau of Reclamation to an Oregon court.
June 06, 2023
Biden Administration, Tribes: Court Should Deny Objections To Intervention Ruling

SALT LAKE CITY — The Biden administration and Native American tribes on June 5 filed a brief in Utah federal court contending that it should deny objections by groups that were denied the right to intervene in a lawsuit pertaining to the administration’s decision to reinstate the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments because the potential intervenors “inaccurately claim” that in issuing the ruling the judge adopted a “novel” approach to intervention.
June 05, 2023
Judge Dismisses Virginia Tribe Members’ Suit Over Lack Of Federal Funds

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Tribal members’ claims over a federal funding dispute with their tribe’s leaders cannot be decided in federal court because they “rest upon numerous, intertwined nonjusticiable issues all beyond the Court’s subject matter jurisdiction and inherently reserved for resolution” only by the tribe, a federal judge in Virginia held in dismissing the members’ suit.
June 05, 2023
Arizona Tribe, Water Districts Settle Water Quality Case

PHOENIX — An Arizona Native American tribe and two state water districts have stipulated to dismissal of the tribe’s water quality complaint after the parties say they negotiated a settlement.
June 02, 2023
Amended Complaint Filed Accusing Indian Medical Center Of Racial Discrimination

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — A Black man who alleges that a hospital run by the Indian Health Service refused to hire him because of his race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 filed an amended complaint days after a federal magistrate judge in New Mexico granted his motion for leave to amend.
June 01, 2023
Oklahoma Federal Judge Denies Habeas Corpus Petition For Indian Country Crimes

TULSA, Okla. — A man who pleaded no contest to two counts of child sexual abuse allegedly committed in Indian Country is not entitled to review of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus because he failed to file the petition within the one-year statute of limitations period, an Oklahoma federal judge held in granting a motion to dismiss the petition filed by the director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.