Second Circuit Briefs in Challenge to Seneca’s Buffalo Casino

UPDATE — these briefs have been superceded with final form briefs (whatever that means) available here.

Here are the materials in Citizens against Casino Gambling in Erie County v. Hogen:

CACGEC Opening Brief

Federal Appellee Brief

Seneca Amicus Brief

CACGEC Reply Brief

Lower court materials here.

New Empirical Study on Indian Land Fractionation on 12 Reservations

Jacob W. Russ & Thomas Stratmann have posted “Creeping Normalcy: Fractionation of Indian Land Ownership” on SSRN.

Here is the abstract:

In 1992 the General Accounting Office (GAO) published a quantitative survey of Indian land ownership of twelve reservations, which was the first and still is the only survey of Indian land ownership. In our study we use 2010 data to show how ownership fractionation for these reservations has changed since the original GAO study. We find that, despite the whole of Congressional action regarding land fractionation, and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA’s) land consolidation programs, fractionation has not only continued, but BIA’s complex recordkeeping workload has nearly doubled for the twelve reservations over the eighteen year interval. The GAO estimated that BIA’s annual recordkeeping costs for these twelve reservations was between $40 and $50 million. With the addition of over a million new ownership records, due to fractionation, we estimate yearly recordkeeping costs have increased to $246 million in 2010.

Cal. Secretary of State Certifies Referendum re: North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and Wiyot Tribe Gaming Compacts

Here:

SOS Certification

News coverage here.

Update in Comanche v. Fallin — Dispute over Tax Compact — UPDATEd (12/2/13)

Here are the federal court filings so far in Comanche Nation v. Fallin (W.D. Okla.):

1 Complaint

9 Motion for TRO

11 Oklahoma Motion to Vacate Arbitration

14 TRO order

UPDATE (12/2/13):

19 Minute Order

2512486 – Nov 20 2013 Transcript of Hearing in Comanche Nation v Fallin – Hon Robin J Cauthron

An excerpt:

Pursuant to this Order, Defendants are hereby Ordered to recognize, honor, and implement the terms of the October 31, 2013, Compact with the Chickasaw Nation and all of its terms, including the tax apportionment formulas, as if that Compact were entered  with Plaintiffs. Further, the State shall withdraw any tobacco stamps issued inconsistently with the terms of the 2013 Compact.
The Court finds that any tax loss to the State is easily recoupable, and because this Order will expire in three weeks, in accordance with Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(c), Plaintiffs shall post a bond in the amount of $25.00 within three days of the date of this Order.

Prior post here.

Two-Spirit Justice Summit//Tribal Equity Toolkit 2.0 Release Party

Here.

Harvard Law Review Comment on Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

Here.

An excerpt:

It is this very inability to escape uncertainty, qualification, and conflict that ultimately situates Adoptive Couple in the Court’s parental rights canon and that suggests its ongoing significance. Like its predecessors, Adoptive Couple is another deeply divided and closely fought decision, which refuses to wholly deny the power of biology even as it insists upon proactive parenting and affective relationships. The conditions and disclaimers embedded in the case’s holding, taken together with the equal conviction and fervor of both opposing opinions, thus serve as proof of the interminability of such judicial debates about the family.94 Further, the Court’s very willingness to engage in a stark contest over biology versus family in a case that by no means required it — and to engage vigorously, even viciously — seems a harbinger of things to come: in an age of momentous changes in the composition of the family, alluded to both in the decision and in other decisions of the Term, questions regarding which relationships and nontraditional ties warrant judicial protection promise to appear with ever more frequency and complexity. As Adoptive Couple shows, however, the Court remains mired in the same disputes it first unleashed forty years earlier, still grappling with the fundamental tension between nature and nurture. Yet this irresolution and ongoing struggle may well be a cause for comfort rather than concern, a sign that the essential questions about the most essential ties and  relationships remain open for investigation and reinvestigation.

Alaska AG Debates Indian Law and Order Commission Chair on Radio

Here.

Barrasso-ILOC-Report

More Complaints against Indian Health Service over Contract Support Costs

Here:

Seldovia Village Tribe v. US

Suquamish Indian Tribe v. US

“Young Lakota” Documentary to Premiere on PBS Independent Lens Nov. 25

Trailer here. Website here.

Hat tip Racialicious.

Washington Dept. of Revenue Interim Guidance in Light of Chehalis v. Thurston County

Here:

Assessors — Interim Guidance 9th Circuit Court Decision — Memo Attachment

Here is the text:

Interim Guidance to County Assessors regarding the Application of the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Decision in Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation v. Thurston County Board of Equalization


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