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Mealey's Native American Law

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.
May 26, 2023
Judge Denies Dismissal Of Oglala Tribe’s Suit For More Police Funding

RAPID CITY, S.D. — The United States has a “unique” treaty duty with a South Dakota Indian tribe “to provide protection and law enforcement cooperation and support” on the tribe’s reservation, a federal judge in the state held in denying the government’s bid to dismiss the tribe’s suit seeking an immediate increase in police funding.
May 24, 2023
Tribe Member Sues School District For Disallowing Eagle Feather On Mortarboard

TULSA, Okla. — A member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Oklahoma sued her school district in Oklahoma state court for allegedly violating her rights to free speech and religion under the Oklahoma and U.S. constitutions after district employees prevented the member from wearing an eagle feather plume attached to her mortarboard at her high school graduation ceremony.
May 24, 2023
Judge: Plea Agreement For Man Charged With Indian Country Crimes Correctly Rejected

PHOENIX — A plea agreement for a man charged with three crimes under the Indian Country Crimes Act (ICCA) was properly denied for imposing too long of a sentence, as the court considered the man’s criminal history and the sentencing guidelines when rejecting the plea deal, an Arizona federal judge found in denying the United States’ motion to reconsider.
May 24, 2023
More Discovery Time Granted In Suit Over Canceled Lease Between Tribe, Campground

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Noting that courts have broad discretion over discovery matters, a Montana federal judge granted a motion for additional time to complete supplemental discovery filed by a company that leased land from the Blackfeet Indian Nation for a campground on its reservation and was sued by the tribe when the lease was canceled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
May 22, 2023
Federal Judge Dismisses Sauk-Suiattle Tribe’s Sales Tax Collection Claims

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge dismissed, with leave to amend, the Sauk-Suiattle Indian Tribe’s claims for declaratory and injunctive relief it pursued for the purposes of ending the state’s collection of retail sales taxes on products bought online and delivered to the tribe’s members on its reservation.
May 22, 2023
Oklahoma Appeals Court: State Might Maintain Criminal Jurisdiction On Reservations

OKLAHOMA CITY — A majority of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals found that acts of Congress did not disestablish the reservations of the Ottawa and Peoria Indian tribes but remanded a trial court’s dismissal of three pending criminal charges against an Indian who argues that Oklahoma has no jurisdiction over him in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court case.
May 19, 2023
North Dakota Federal Judge Says Tribal Entities Have Immunity Against Tax Claims

BISMARCK, N.D. — Four tribal entities have sovereign immunity from claims of declaratory and injunctive relief brought by a contractor who was taxed by the tribe for metal work performed at a school located on a reservation, a North Dakota federal judge found in partly granting the tribal entities’ motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
May 12, 2023
Tribal Detainees’ Demand For Inmate-Run Auto Plant Suffers Dismissal Loss

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — Four pretrial detainees in an Oklahoma jail lost their bid to have the Cherokee Nation open a $2 billion training center where prisoners could build cars for the country’s first line of Native American autos when a federal judge in the state on May 11 dismissed the civil rights class action they filed over the lack of speedy arraignments for those charged in tribal court.
May 11, 2023
Supreme Court Wants Response From Seattle To Tribe’s Petition Over Fish Passage

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has requested a response from Seattle and its hydroelectricity agency to a petition for certiorari filed by a Washington Indian tribe seeking review of the dismissal of its suit over the lack of a migratory fish passageway at one of the city’s dams.
May 09, 2023
United States, Klamath Water Users Oppose Yurok Tribe’s Injunction Motion

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal government agencies and water users in the Klamath Basin in Oregon and California have filed oppositions to a motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining the federal government’s drought-related management of water in Klamath Lake and the Klamath River.
May 05, 2023
Utah Tribe Sues Rancher In Federal Court In Latest Attempt To Enforce Water Rights

SALT LAKE CITY — After having a tribal court judgment in its favor nullified by two federal courts in a trespass and water rights dispute with a rancher, a Utah Indian tribe has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah seeking declaratory relief and damages on claims that also include theft by conversion and nuisance.