Ceiba Legal Awarded Attorney Fees After Successful Defense of RICO/Lanham Act Actions

Here are the materials in Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians of the Sulphur Bank Rancheria v. Ceiba Legal (N.D. Cal.):

70 Motion for Atty Fees

75 Response

79 Reply

83 DCT Order

Lower court materials here.

 

D.C. Circuit Briefs in Tuttle v. Jewel

Here:

Tuttle Brief

US Brief

Tuttle Reply

Lower court materials here.

Ninth Circuit Denies Emergency Demand to Restore Travel Ban

Details at the Immigration Law Blog.

Judge Canby still serves on the Ninth Circuit’s motions panel and had a hand in this. He’s a hero.

New Commentary on Standing Rock

Here is “Standing Rock and the Erosion of Tribal Rights.”

Gorsuch Nomination Update

The Library of Commerce has published a bibliography of Judge Gorsuch’s writings here.

No, young Neil did not form a Fascism Forever club in school.

Eighth Circuit Affirms Major Crimes Act Child Abuse Conviction

Here is the opinion in United States v. White Plume.

National Indian Law Library (2/1/2017)

Here:

The National Indian Law Library added new content to the Indian Law Bulletins on 2/1/17.

U.S. Federal Courts Bulletin
http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/federal/2017.html
Jones v. United States (Bad Men Treaty Provision)
United States v. Barnes (Oklevueha Native American Church; Marijuana Manufacturing)
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Great Plains Lending, LLC (Tribal Sovereign Immunity – Consumer Lending)
United States v. Bear (Criminal Jurisdiction)

Tribal Courts Bulletin
http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/tribal/2016.html
Deserly v. Fort Peck Tribes (Tribal Court Jurisdiction; Healing to Wellness Court)
In re S.B.H. (Child Welfare – Custody; Child Support)
Crofford v. Baker (Employment Termination)
Luond v. Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprise (Employment Termination)

News Bulletin
http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/news/currentnews.html
In the Intergovernmental section, we feature some stories about the newly appointed Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court and his impacts on American Indian law issues.

U.S. Regulatory Bulletin
http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/regulatory/2017.html
We feature a rule from the Department of Interior, Indian Gaming Commission, regarding Privacy Act procedures.

Law Review & Bar Journal Bulletin
http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/lawreviews/2017.html
Here are the articles featured this week:
Protecting vulnerable children in Indian Country: Why and how the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 should be extended to cover child abuse committed on Indian reservations.
Oral tradition and the Kennewick man.
Assessing political economy in Native American nations.
A legal practitioner’s guide to Indian and tribal law research.
Why the Religious Freedom Restoration Act cannot protect sacred sites.
Money is for nothing: The inherent want of consideration found in substantial exclusivity terms within tribal-state compacts.
A silent epidemic: Revisiting the 2013 Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act to better protect American Indian and Alaska Native women.
Complex adaptive peacemaking: How systems theory reveals advantages of traditional tribal dispute resolution methods.
Constitutional law—the reaffirmation of the lack of Sixth Amendment protections for indigent Native American defendants in Tribal court proceedings United States v. Bryant, 136 S. Ct. 1954 (2016).
Indians, tribes, and (federal) jurisdiction.

U.S. Legislation Bulletin
http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/legislation/115_uslegislation.html
One bill was added this week.
S.245: A bill to amend the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self Determination Act of 2005, and for other purposes.

Guest Post — Ray Martin on the AEI Panel with Rep. Bishop and Naomi Riley

On January 30th, 2017 the American Enterprise Institute hosted a panel discussion entitled,  How federal policy affects Native Americans: Naomi Schafer Riley on her book, ‘The New Trail of Tears: How Washington is Destroying American Indians.’ A video of the panel can be found here. On the panel with Naomi Schafer Riley (NSR) were Congressman Rob Bishop R-Utah, the Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee which oversees Indian Affairs in the House of Representatives, Chris Edwards from the Cato Institute, and Keith Moore a former director of the Bureau of Indian Education.

The panel began with a talk from NSR regarding her book The New Trail of Tears (TNToT). The book has already been discussed at length here on Turtle Talk, Professor Fletcher’s commentary can be found here. The discussion at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) was disheartening and alarming. NSR began by attacking the community at Pine Ridge for its poor retention of teachers, and went onto blast a former principal of a school for firing all of the Teach for America (TFA) teachers at that school because they “were too white.” While this may have once been true it is simply not the case anymore. What NSR fails to mention is that several of the Tribes in South Dakota have partnered with TFA to bring TFA to Indian reservations in South Dakota. For example in 2015, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe formed a partnership with TFA to recruit tribal members to become teachers in reservation schools. In 2013, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe passed a resolution supporting TFA and its efforts on their reservation; this followed a similar resolution passed by the Ogalala Sioux Tribal Council as well, supporting TFA’s efforts on Pine Ridge. Just over a year ago, the Rapid City Journal documented the ongoing relationship between TFA on Rosebud and Standing Rock, as well as at the Red Cloud Indian School on Pine Ridge.  Rather than giving her audience all of the information regarding the decisions that Tribal leaders are making to support the development of their youth, NSR retreats to portraying reservations as bleak and hopeless places where no child has a chance at receiving a decent education. Her claim that Tribes in South Dakota are unable or unwilling to partner with organizations like TFA does not stand on its merits, and is likely confined to the one incident in her talk, in which she cites an unnamed source. Continue reading

Neil Gorsuch Indian Law Record as Tenth Circuit Judge

Here are Judge Gorsuch’s Indian law decisions (to be updated as we add details — most recently updated 12:03 12:17 PM eastern):

United Planners Financial Services v. Sac and Fox Nation, 654 Fed.Appx. 376 (10th Cir. 2016) (favoring tribal interests in tribal exhaustion matter)

Ute Indian Tribe v. Myton, 835 F.3d 1255 (10th Cir. 2016)(favoring tribal interests in state-tribal criminal jurisdictional disputes)

Ute Indian Tribe v. State of Utah, 790 F.3d 1000 (10th Cir. 2015) (favoring tribal interests in state-tribal criminal jurisdictional disputes: “In our layered system of trial and appellate courts everyone’s assured at least two chances to air a grievance. Add to this the possibility that a lawsuit might bounce back to the trial court on remand or even rebound its way to appeal yet again — or the possibility that an issue might win interlocutory review — and the opportunities to press a complaint grow abundantly. No doubt our complex and consuming litigation wringer has assumed the shape it has so courts might squeeze as much truth as possible out of the parties’ competing narratives. But sooner or later every case must come to an end. After all, that’s why people bring their disputes to court in the first place: because the legal system promises to resolve their differences without resort to violence and supply “peace and repose” at the end of it all. S. Pac. R.R. Co. v. United States, 168 U.S. 1, 49 (1897). For a legal system to meet this promise, of course, both sides must accept — or, if need be, they must be made to respect — the judgments it generates. Most people know and readily assent to all this. So it’s pretty surprising when a State and several of its counties need a reminder. But that’s what this appeal is all about.”).

United States v. Rentz, 777 F.3d 1105 (10th Cir. 2015) (en banc) (affirming Indian country criminal conviction)

Nowlin v. United States, 581 Fed.Appx. 722 (10th Cir. 2015) (rejecting pro se claim by Indian convict)

Yellowbear v. Lampert, 741 F.3d 48 (10th Cir. 2014) (favoring Indian prisoner in religious freedom matter)

Fletcher v. United States, 730 F.3d 1206 (10th Cir. 2013) (favoring individual Indians in trust dispute with federal government)

Gardner v. Arrowichis, 543 Fed.Appx. 891 (10th Cir. 2013) (rejecting pro se ICRA habeas claim)

Somerlott v. Cherokee Nation Distributors, Inc., 686 F.3d 1144 (10th Cir. 2013) (ruling in favor of tribal interests on procedural grounds but holding tribal corporation not immune from suit) (Gorsuch filed concurring opinion explaining in more detail why tribal corporation not immune; “Of course, Indian tribes are entitled to sovereign immunity absent congressional abrogation. See Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Mfg. Techs., Inc., 523 U.S. 751, 759, 118 S.Ct. 1700, 140 L.Ed.2d 981 (1998). And, of course, this immunity is not limited by the type of activity involved or where it takes place. Id. at 758, 118 S.Ct. 1700. But no matter how broadly conceived, sovereign immunity has never extended to a for-profit business owned by one sovereign but formed under the laws of a second sovereign when the laws of the incorporating second sovereign expressly allow the business to be sued. And it doesn’t matter whether the sovereign owning the business is the federal government, a foreign sovereign, state—or tribe.“).

Hydro Resources, Inc. v. EPA, 608 F.3d 1131 (10th Cir. 2010) (en banc) (ruling against tribal interests and EPA in “Indian country” jurisdiction dispute)

Yellowbear v. Attorney General, 380 Fed.Appx. 740 (10th Cir. 2010) (rejecting habeas claim of Indian prisoner on jurisdictional grounds)

Swimmer v. Sebelius, 364 Fed.Appx. 441 (10th Cir. 2010) (dismissing IHS employee’s Title VII complaint for procedural reasons)

Four Corners Nephrology Associates PC v. Mercy Medical Center of Durango, 582 F.3d 1216 (10th Cir. 2009) (favoring medical center servicing Indian country clients in antitrust claim)

United States v. Dolan, 571 F.3d 1022 (10th Cir. 2009) (affirming sentence of Indian convicted of assault)

United States v. Taylor, 514 F.3d 1092 (10th Cir. 2008) (affirming conviction of Indian for assault even where prosecutor had made inappropriate statements: “During opening statements at Johnson Kenneth Taylor’s trial arising out of a fight that he initiated on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation, the prosecutor urged the jury to convict Mr. Taylor in order to “end the cycle of violence” on the reservation. . . . There is no question that the prosecutor’s remark was inappropriate. The jury’s role in a criminal trial is to find facts related to the defendant’s innocence or guilt, a function in which prosecutorial appeals to the resolution of social ills play no useful role. Nevertheless, because Mr. Taylor expressed no dissatisfaction with the ameliorative course adopted by the district court, we are able to review the district court’s failure to issue either a mistrial or further corrective instruction sua sponte only for the presence of plain error. Discerning none, we affirm.“).

United States v. Poole, 545 F.3d 916 (10th Cir. 2008) (affirming Indian country criminal conviction)

United States v. Tucson, 248 Fed.Appx. 959 (10th Cir. 2007) (ruling against Indian country illegal drugs defendant)

Pino v. United States, 507 F.3d 1233 (10th Cir. 2007) (certifying state law question in wrongful death action against IHS)

Here are decisions in which Judge Gorsuch participated but did not write opinion:

Continue reading

How Is This Not the Most Degrading Moment in the History of the Federal Judiciary?

Here is “It’s ‘The Apprentice, Supreme Court Edition,’ as Trump Summons Finalists to White House.”

The nominees should walk away from this spectacle with their dignities intact.