Al Brophy wrote a nice post today at the Faculty Lounge about the book we will be talking about today, Radicals in Their Own Time. Given that Al is one of the speakers, this is likely an excellent preview into his portion of the talk this afternoon.
Author: Kate Fort
January 24th Spring Speakers Event
AP Article on Women in Front of the Supreme Court, with Quotes from Patricia Millett
Some excerpts of the article, because of AP’s stringent reblogging policy:
US Supreme Court hears from few female lawyers
By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last year Lisa Blatt listed the top lessons she’s learned in more than a decade as a lawyer arguing before the Supreme Court. Never let the justices see you sweat, facts matter and timing is everything. Then she wrote this: Women have a harder time than men successfully arguing before the court.
She should know. No living woman has argued before the nation’s highest court more times than Blatt, who made her 30th appearance Wednesday in a case about drug prices.
“Each argument is a big deal,” said Blatt, a Texas native who learned to argue as a high school debater.
“One of the things I’m most concerned about is women self-select out of the types of things that lead to appellate Supreme Court careers,” said Patricia Millett, one of a handful of women who routinely argues before the bench. Her 28 arguments put her just behind Blatt.
Millett, a mother of two, and other female lawyers said family reasons can compel women to choose career paths that are less demanding than becoming a Supreme Court advocate. Maureen Mahoney, who has argued 21 times before the court and is also a mother, said that until family demands fall more equally on men and women she doesn’t believe women will argue in equal numbers.
The first woman applied to argue before the Supreme Court in 1876, but the justices voted 6-3 against admitting her or any other female lawyer. Three years later, at the urging of the rejected lawyer, Belva Lockwood, Congress passed a law forcing the court to accept women as advocates. Still, female lawyers remained curiosities at the court into the 1970s.
One exception was Beatrice Rosenberg, a Justice Department lawyer who argued more than 30 cases in the 1950s and 60s. Until Wednesday, Rosenberg was the only woman with 30 arguments before the court, though a handful of men have argued twice that many.
Interior Releases Tribal Consultation Policy Draft
From the BIA:
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Assistant Secretary- Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk today provided the Department’s draft Tribal Consultation Policy to the leaders of the nation’s 565 federally-recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes for their review and comment. Receiving input from Indian country on the draft policy will guide the Department in carrying out President Obama’s directive to all federal departments to develop ways to improve communication and consultation with Tribal leaders in order to develop positive solutions for issues affecting the First Americans.
And a copy of the draft policy here.
New York Times Editorial on Former SGs Arguing in Front of SCOTUS
An excerpt from the NY Times:
Friends of the Court?
Published: January 18, 2011
The Roberts court is hearing a larger share of cases about economic activities that matter to big business than the Rehnquist court before it. A recent study done by scholars for The Times documents that, compared with other Supreme Courts since 1953, this one is “significantly more likely to produce a conservative decision” in those cases.
One reason for that, beyond the court’s conservative tilt, may be that big business is increasingly bringing in big guns to argue their cases: former lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of the Solicitor General. So far this term, former Solicitors General Gregory Garre, Theodore Olson and Seth Waxman have argued at the court for business clients.
Former solicitors general used to be more likely to become professors, judges or other kinds of public servants. Now they are more likely to build corporate practices. With the exception of Justice Elena Kagan and one other, every former solicitor general for the past 15 years leads a law firm group representing business clients.
Of the 11 cases on the court’s January list for oral arguments, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed briefs in seven. Last term, the chamber supported the winning side in 13 of 16 cases where it took part. As Adam Liptak reported in The Times, the group attributes those results to the quality of their advocates. The biggest victory was in the Citizens United case, argued by Mr. Olson.
MI Court of Appeals Judge Brian Zahra Appointed MI Supreme Court
From the Michigan Lawyer Blog. Judge Zahra was appointed to the Court of Appeals in 1999 by then-Governor Engler. Prior to that he was a judge in Wayne County. He does not appear to have participated in any decisions on the Indian Child Welfare Act or other state Indian law cases.
Also from the Oakland Press:
LANSING (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder has named Appeals Court Judge Brian Zahra (ZAR’-uh) to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Zahra will replace Justice Maura Corrigan, who is stepping down Friday to become director of the state Department of Human Services.
Zahra turned 51 on Sunday. He was appointed to the appeals court in 1999 by GOP Gov. John Engler and elected to the court in 2000 and 2006.
The Northville resident was a Wayne County Circuit Court judge from 1994-98 and an attorney and partner at the Dickinson Wright law firm from 1989-94.
Snyder made the announcement at a news conference Monday morning.
The appointment means the court will keep its 4-3 Republican majority. The move gives Snyder a chance to put his mark on the Supreme Court within days of taking office.
New TT Reference Page for Federal Press Releases
We periodically receive press releases from the BIA, but for various reasons we don’t always put every one of them up as a new TT post. We have decided, though, to collect them on one page at TurtleTalk. The page is here, under the ILPC Research Areas tab at the top of the page. If you are interested in receiving an alert every time we update the page, just click the box at the bottom of the page that says “send me site updates.” This ought to send you a notice when we add information to the page.
Thanks to our Dean, Joan Howarth, for giving me this idea during a recent conversation.
Supreme Court Grants Cert in Jicarilla Apache
As predicted, the Supreme Court granted cert in United States v. Jicarilla Apache Nation. The Court released the order list this afternoon instead of Monday.
Ojibwe Language Preservation Documentary Available Online
Available from Twin Cities Public Television here. The entire show is available and about an hour long.
h/t E.P.
Here’s the description:
About First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language
As recent as World War II, the Ojibwe language (referred to as ojibwemowin in Ojibwe) was the language of everyday life for the Anishinaabe and historically the language of the Great Lakes fur trade. Now this indigenous language from where place names like Biwabik, Sheboygan and Nemadji State Forest received their names is endangered.
The loss of land and political autonomy, combined with the damaging effects of U.S. government policies aimed at assimilating Native Americans through government run boarding schools, have led to the steep decline in the use of the language. Anton Treuer, historian, author and professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University and featured in First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language, estimates there are fewer than one thousand fluent Ojibwe speakers left in the United States, mostly older and concentrated in small pockets in northern Minnesota with fewer than one hundred speakers in Wisconsin, Michigan and North Dakota combined.
Treuer is a part of a new generation of Ojibwe scholars and educators who are now racing against time to save the language and the well-being of their communities. Narrated by acclaimed Ojibwe writer, Louise Erdrich, First Speakers tells their contemporary and inspirational story. Working with the remaining fluent Ojibwe speaking elders, the hope is to pass the language on to the next generation. As told through Ojibwe elders, scholars, writers, historians and teachers, this tpt original production reveals some of the current strategies and challenges that are involved in trying to carry forward the language.
First Speakers takes viewers inside two Ojibwe immersion schools: Niigaane Ojibwemowin Immersion School on the Leech Lake Reservation near Bena, Minnesota and the Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion Charter School on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation near Hayward, Wisconsin. In both programs, students are taught their academic content from music to math entirely in the Ojibwe language and within the values and traditional practices of the Ojibwe culture. Unique to the schools is the collaboration between fluent speaking elders and the teachers who have learned Ojibwe as their second language.
First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language provides a window into their innovative and intergenerational learning experience and the language they are determined to save.
Top Ten Indian Law Cases of 2010 on Turtle Talk
A slightly different list than our first post, this post looks at the top cases in Indian law based on hits to the post on Turtle Talk. These can include posts about preliminary matters in the case. Cases will only make one appearance on the list at their highest spot (adding the total number of hits from all posts on a case would not change the top ten list). We made a note when materials from a case made it into the top 20 most downloaded documents of the year.
1. Wells Fargo v. Lake of Torches EDC, post with materials on the case (the final decision post would be number 6 on this list; the final opinion is the 10th most downloaded document of the year).
2. Red Earth LLC v. United States, preliminary injunction in PACT Act case (additional materials in this case would be number 10 on this list).
3. United States v. Fred Paquin, indictment of former Sault Tribe chief of police (the indictment is the 8th most downloaded document of the year).
4. Miranda v. Nielson, federal court rejects tribal stacked sentencing.
5. Saginaw Chippewa Tribe v. Granholm, boundary settlement materials.
6. United States v. Cavanaugh, federal district court dismissal of indictment as previous uncounseled convictions in tribal court could not be used as evidence of “habitual offender” status.
7. Menominee Tribal Enterprises v. Solis, OSHA applies to tribal enterprise (the decision in this case is the 20th most downloaded document for the year).
8. Pacheco v. Massengill, federal district court grants ICRA habeas petition.
9. Attorney’s Process and Investigation Services v. Sac and Fox Tribe, federal court upholds tribal jurisdiction over nonmember.
10. United States v. Tohono O’odham Nation, Supreme Court grants cert.
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