Since the Supreme Court asked the Solicitor General to file a brief expressing the views of the federal government on whether the accept the Hogan v. Kaltag Tribal Council, we thought we’d drop links to prior invitation briefs:
Teck Camino v. Pakootas (06-1188)
Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation (03-855)
South Florida Water Management Dist. v. Miccosukee Tribe (02-626)
Salt River Project v. Dawavendewa (98-1628)
A quick review of these briefs indicates that the OSG seems to side with tribal interests in each of these cases, but was unsuccessful in Sherrill and South Florida from persuading the Supreme Court from granting cert. Unfortunately, the Court does seem to usually grant cert over an invitation brief from the OSG recommending denial where the petitioner is a state or state subdivision. I’ve referenced this phenomenon in a short paper on the OSG here.
Turtle Talk 