Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

Prior post here.

Liz Reese Full Commentary on the Cooley Decision

June 8, 2021Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From SCOTUSBlog here.

An excerpt:

On Tuesday in United States v. Cooley, the Supreme Court upheld a power that tribal governments have long assumed they possessed as a basic necessity of ensuring public safety. The court held that tribal governments — and thus their police officers — retain the power to temporarily stop, and if necessary, search non-Indians traveling on public rights-of-way (highways) through reservations for suspected violations of federal or state laws. The unanimous opinion was authored by Justice Stephen Breyer. The decision represents an important affirmation of tribal inherent sovereign power by the new court and the first time the court has ever found that a tribe’s interest in addressing a threat to its political integrity, economic security, health or welfare was strong enough for the tribe to exert government authority of any kind over a non-Indian.

Phillips v. Oneida Indian Nation Cert Petition

June 8, 2021Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

Phillips v OIN Cert Petition

Lower court materials here.

NCAI Amicus Brief Supporting Standing Rock Protester Shot in Face by Police with Lead Bean Bag

June 8, 2021Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the brief in Mitchell v. Kirchmeier (8th Cir.):

NCAI Amicus Brief

Fred Hart, Champion of the Pre-Law Summer Institute, Has Passed

June 8, 2021Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Helen Padilla, director of the American Indian Law Center:

To the Pre-Law Summer Institute Alumni, Professors, and Family,

The American Indian Law Center, Inc. regrets to inform our vast network of Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI) alumni that UNM School of Law Professor Emeritus and former Dean Fred Hart passed away on June 6, 2021. In 1967, Professor Fred Hart and Dean Tom Christopher created a Special Scholarship Program in Law for American Indians at UNM School of Law. This Special Scholarship Program was the pre-cursor to the Pre-Law Summer Institute. In the 53 years since that pivotal summer, the Pre-Law Summer Institute has remained faithful to its mission to prepare American Indians and Alaska Natives for the rigors of law school by essentially replicating the first semester of law school in an intensive two-month program. For decades, PLSI alumni have been leaders throughout Indian Country and the United States, including U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is the first indigenous member of a President’s cabinet in our country’s history. Professor Hart probably never imagined that the summer program he helped to launch eventually would produce a Secretary of the Interior and countless other leaders. Nonetheless, we at the American Indian Law Center remain ever grateful for and mindful of his role in creating the most successful pre-law prep program in the U.S. for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Fred Hart’s life teaches us all that the efforts of one person can make a difference that echoes far and wide across generations. We offer our sincere condolences to Professor Hart’s family and friends.

We interviewed Professor Hart in 2017 as part of PLSI’s 50^th Anniversary celebration. The PLSI History page link: https://www.ailc-inc.org/plsi-history/

The video interview with Fred Hart is here: