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

Mealey's Native American Law

October 10, 2023
2 Alaskan Tribes Appeal Water Permit Approvals For Planned Gold Mine

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Two Native American tribes have filed a notice of appeal to the state Supreme Court of a state district court’s finding that the state’s approval of 12 water permits for a proposed gold mine was not unconstitutional or arbitrary.
October 04, 2023
Groups: Court Should Strike Willow Project Parties’ Extra-Record Documents

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A coalition of environmental groups and Native Americans on Oct. 3 filed a brief in Alaska federal court arguing that it should strike extra-record materials submitted by intervenor defendants in a dispute over hydraulic fracturing operations in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska as part of what is known as the Willow Project. The groups say the intervenors fail to carry their burden to demonstrate that submission of their extra-record documents was proper.
October 03, 2023
Supreme Court Denies Tribe’s Petition On Hydroelectric Dam And The Futility Doctrine

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 2 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a Washington Indian tribe that argued that its original action, asking whether the construction of a dam in the Skagit River used for hydroelectric power violated provisions of the U.S. and Washington constitutions as well as state and federal statutes by not allowing for the passage of salmon and other migratory fish, should not have been dismissed under the futility doctrine.
October 03, 2023
Tribal Business Council’s Sovereign Immunity Won’t Be Considered By Supreme Court

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 2 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a member of an Indian tribe and her company that asserted that sovereign immunity does not bar the fraud and racketeering claims the two brought against an Indian tribe’s business council because the council waived its immunity in a mandatory arbitration clause in a joint venture agreement signed by the parties.
October 02, 2023
9th Circuit Says Navajo Law Does Not Govern Traffic Accident On Federal Highway

SAN FRANCISCO — Despite the fact that a traffic accident occurred within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that a district court did not err in dismissing claims raised under Navajo law because the accident occurred on a federal highway, which renders the accident site nontribal land.
October 02, 2023
Judge Moots Cross-Motions In Gila River Subflow Case Until Related Appeal Decided

TUCSON, Ariz. — An Arizona federal judge held that cross-motions for summary judgment involving alleged unlawful pumping of Gila River subflow are moot and stayed them until after the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issues a ruling in a related appeal.
October 02, 2023
Oregon Water Department Won’t Respond To Water District’s High Court Petition

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) has waived its right to respond to a petition for a writ of certiorari in which the Klamath Irrigation District seeks review of an appeals court’s application of the doctrine of prior exclusion jurisdiction in an ongoing water adjudication under the McCarren Amendment.
October 02, 2023
Magistrate Judge Recommends Summary Judgment Against Klamath Tribes’ ESA Case

MEDFORD, Ore. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge has recommended that a judge grant summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and against the Klamath Tribes, finding that the agency has “equal obligations” to three species of fish in the Upper Klamath Lake and in the Klamath River under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and did not prioritize river salmon over suckers in the lake.
September 29, 2023
Virginia Federal Judge Awards $43 Million In Tribal Lending RICO Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — In light of several stipulations regarding damages and defenses, a Virginia federal judge ordered a nontribal member of a tribally owned payday lending business to pay more than $43 million to a class of customers who signed usurious loan agreements with the business for claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
September 27, 2023
Inmate’s Religious Claims Now Moot As Grooming Policy Changed, Federal Judge Says

VICTORIA, Texas — Whether the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (TDCJ) grooming policy violates the First Amendment and federal law by failing to permit inmates to wear their hair in accordance with Native American religious beliefs is now moot because the TDCJ changed its policy during the pendency of an inmate’s case, a Texas federal judge found in dismissing the inmate’s claims without prejudice.
September 25, 2023
Tribal Health Care Funding Question Raised In 2 Supreme Court Petitions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In two petitions for a writ of certiorari presenting the same question, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider whether the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA) requires the Indian Health Service (IHS) to pay contract support costs for expenditures of income collected by Indian tribes from third parties under self-determination contracts.
September 21, 2023
9th Circuit Affirms Findings In Dispute Over Puget Sound Tribal Fishing Rights

SEATTLE — A federal trial court did not err in finding that the Lummi Nation does not have fishing rights in the waters east of Puget Sound’s Whidbey Island because no evidence shows that the tribe historically fished there, a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the trial court’s decision.
September 21, 2023
Officers Appeal Grant Of Preliminary Injunction Over Tribe’s Cigarette Business

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A group of tribal officers and a tribal tobacco corporation have appealed to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals an order from a California federal judge granting a preliminary injunction in favor of California against one of the officers who is alleged to have illegally distributed cigarettes within the state.
September 18, 2023
Government Urges High Court To Uphold ‘Bedrock Principle’ Of Chevron Deference

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. secretary of Commerce, two National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) officials and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) (collectively, the government) urge the U.S. Supreme Court in a Sept. 15 brief to not overrule the doctrine of Chevron deference in a challenge to fishery regulations that were upheld by the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, writing that doing so could “cause disruption” to complex federal regulatory schemes.
September 18, 2023
In Affirming Conviction, 11th Circuit Says It’s Irrelevant If Man Is Cherokee

ATLANTA — It is irrelevant whether a man is a member of the Cherokee Nation because he violated federal firearms laws and his crimes did not occur in Indian country, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found in affirming the man’s conviction by a federal jury.
September 15, 2023
Fla. Panel: Unclear If Gaming Compact Bars Tort Claims Against The Seminole Tribe

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It is unclear whether a man’s tort claims against the Seminole Tribe of Florida are barred by the compact governing the tribe’s gaming operations because nothing in the record shows that the tribe responded within 30 days to the man’s notice, as required by the compact, a Florida appellate panel found in reversing a trial court’s decision to deny the tribe’s motion to dismiss.
September 12, 2023
United States And Tribe Granted Summary Judgment On Clean Water Act Claims

SEATTLE — In disposing of three motions for summary judgment, a Washington federal judge granted the United States and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians summary judgment on several alleged Clean Water Act (CWA) violations arising from the rupture of a diversion channel during construction at a power plant that caused pollutants to enter the Puyallup River.
September 12, 2023
Oregon District Asks High Court To Rule On Jurisdiction In Water Adjudication

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Klamath Irrigation District has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on whether the federal government can avoid the doctrine of prior exclusive jurisdiction in an ongoing water adjudication under the McCarren Amendment by asserting defenses based on federal law and removing cases to federal courts.
September 11, 2023
Native American Man Failed To Allege Discriminatory Intent In Housing Dispute

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A Native American man who says he was evicted from a housing unit because of his identity failed to allege that his landlord acted with any kind of discriminatory intent in his original complaint or his motion to amend, a New York federal magistrate judge held in recommending that the landlord’s motion for judgment on the pleadings be granted (Michael R. Paladino v. Jason Beaumont, et al., No. 20-65, W.D. N.Y., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155608).
September 11, 2023
Arizona Federal Judge: Farmers Violated River Decree With 4 Wells

TUCSON, Ariz. — An Arizona federal judge has ruled that three farmers are pumping water from the Gila River in violation of a 1935 water decree and granted summary judgment in favor of two Native American tribes.
September 11, 2023
In Tribal Contract Dispute, Utah Federal Judge Refuses To Sanction Businessman

SALT LAKE CITY — A business development contractor who has a long-running breach of contract dispute with the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation did not act in bad faith when he responded to the tribe’s motion to dismiss in state court despite being enjoined from taking any action in the case, a Utah federal judge found in refusing to sanction the man with attorney fees.
September 11, 2023
Federal Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Tribe Member’s Land And Trust Claims

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A member of the Blackfeet Tribe who alleged that the United States violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and breached its trust relationship by not maintaining land subject to a federal conservation program failed to show that the Court of Federal Claims had subject matter jurisdiction over the dispute, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found Sept. 8 in affirming the Claims Court’s order dismissing the case.
September 11, 2023
Federal Magistrate: Oregon Properly Denied Stays Of Klamath Lake Regulation

MEDFORD, Ore. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge has affirmed orders by the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) denying stays in five related cases involving tribal water rights in the Upper Klamath Lake pending appeals.
September 08, 2023
Kroger Agrees To Pay $1.2 Billion To Settle Nationwide Opioid Claims

CINCINNATI — Supermarket chain Kroger Co. has agreed to pay up to $1.2 billion to states and $36 million to Native American tribes to fund abatement efforts to settle the majority of pending or potential claims that the company failed to monitor suspicious opioid orders and created a public nuisance from the opioid addiction epidemic, according to the company’s Sept. 8 press release.
September 07, 2023
Employees Owed No Duty To Patron Who Died After Dispute In Tribal Casino Lot

TACOMA, Wash. — Employees of a tribal casino are not liable for negligence allegedly arising from the death of a casino patron who was thrown out of a moving car by her boyfriend in the casino’s parking lot because the employees were sued in their individual capacities and owed no duty to the patron, a Washington appellate panel found in affirming the trial court’s dismissal of the case.