Here is the petition (docket no. 11-701):
Gustafson v Poitra Cert Petition
Here are the questions presented:
1. Whether the State of North Dakota can supplant its own state case law, instead of federal law on jurisdictional disputes between state courts and tribal courts.
2. Whether the State of North Dakota has subject matter jurisdiction over a contract dispute between a nonmember individual and a member of an Indian tribe arising from the ownership and use of a building located on non-Indian owned fee land on an Indian reservation.
Here is the lower court opinion. Here is Gustafson’s lower court brief. And Poitra’s. Poitra was pro se.
Pretty interesting. We had this case before us in the Turtle Mountain Tribal Court of Appeals.
Gustafson v. Poitra Cert Pet
The issues are intentionally mis-stated in the petition to the US SCT. If you read the ND S Ct opinion, paragraph # 8, Poitra and Leon Poitra Estate are the onwers of fee land within the reservation. Gustafson is the non-Indian lessee. In the petition on cert Gustafson’s lawyers say Gaustafson is the non-Indian owner, which is an intentional lie to the US S Ct.