Here is the unpublished opinion in Harris v. Parisien.
And an excerpt from a local news article (Billings Gazette):
A federal appeals court has rejected a Billings woman’s claim that her rights were violated when the Crow Tribe of Indians adopted a new constitution in 2001.
Frances Harris is an enrolled member of the Crow Tribe. She sued in U.S. District Court, seeking to invalidate the 2001 tribal constitution because it eliminated a voting district for tribal members who do not live on the Crow Indian Reservation.
Harris argued that this violated her rights under the U.S. Constitution.
She named as defendants Edward Parisian, regional director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Billings; Carl Venne, the Crow tribal chairman who died in February of this year; the Crow tribal executive branch and Crow tribal legislators.
In 2007 federal Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby in Billings recommended the court grant a motion by the tribal defendants to dismiss the complaint on the basis that Harris had failed to exhaust her Tribal Court remedies.
Ostby also recommended the District Court grant a motion by Parisian to dismiss the claims against him “because he is entitled to sovereign immunity in his official capacity.”
Ostby’s recommendations were later adopted by Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull.
On Monday a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court findings.
The lawsuit by Harris was one of several challenging the 2001 Crow Constitution.
Turtle Talk 