Author: Matthew L.M. Fletcher – Page 87

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on tribal communities. This CLE will address the legal tools that tribes are using to slow the spread of the disease, respond to the disease’s prevalence, and access needed economic supports.

Faculty:
Wenona T. Singel, Deputy Legal Counsel, Office of the Governor, State of Michigan

Moderator:
Matthew Fletcher, Professor of Law & Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, Michigan State University College of

Chairperson:
Doreen McPaul, Attorney General, Navajo Nation; President, Tribal In-House Counsel Association

Register at: https://azbar.inreachce.com/Details/Information/9316cae5-96ab-45c4-9b29-e1dcf337ad5e

1.0 Total CLE Unit, (No Ethics or Specialization Credit).

Best regards,
Tribal In-House Counsel Association

California Law Review Publishes “Politics, Indian Law, and the Constitution”

April 28, 2020Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The article is here. PDF.

The abstract:

The question of whether Congress may create legal classifications based on Indian status under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause is reaching a critical point. Critics claim the Constitution allows no room to create race- or ancestry-based legal classifications. The critics are wrong.

When it comes to Indian affairs, the Constitution is not colorblind. I argue that, textually, the Indian Commerce Clause and Indians Not Taxed Clause serve as express authorization for Congress to create legal classifications based on Indian race and ancestry, so long as those classifications are not arbitrary, as the Supreme Court stated a century ago in United States v. Sandoval and more recently in Morton v. Mancari.

Should the Supreme Court reconsider those holdings, I suggest there are significant structural reasons as to why the judiciary should refrain from applying strict scrutiny review of congressional legal classifications. The reasons are rooted in the political question doctrine and the institutional incapacity of the judiciary. Who is an Indian is a deeply fraught question that judges have no special institutional capacity to assess.

Federal Court Enjoins Treasury from Disbursing CARES Act Funds to ANCs (for now)

April 27, 2020April 28, 2020Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the order in Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation v. Mnuchin (D.D.C.):

36 DCT Order

Case tag here.

Chehalis v. Mnuchin Press Release issued by the Tulalip Tribes and the Confederated Tribes of Chehalis Reservation_

Tribal Suit over Paycheck Protection Program of CARES Act

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials (so far) in Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe v. Carranza (D.S.D.):

4 Motion for TRO

9 First Amended Complaint

Taylorsville Rancheria Federal Recognition Suit Allowed to Proceed

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials in Tsi Akim Maidu of Taylorsville Rancheria v. Dept. of the Interior (E.D. Cal.):

1 Complaint

12 US Motion to Dismiss

13 Response

17 Reply

33 DCT Order

34 First Amended Complaint

35 US Motion to Dismiss

36 Opposition

39 Reply

41 DCT Order

New Research on COVID-19 Infection Rates in Indian Country

April 25, 2020Matthew L.M. Fletcher

American Indian Reservations and COVID-19: Correlates of Early Infection Rates in the Pandemic

April 25, 2020

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is causing widespread devastation as rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) grow across the world. The United States is experiencing one of the largest outbreaks with over half a million confirmed cases as of mid-April 2020. However, outbreaks on tribal lands are largely ignored by the federal government, mainstream media, and case tracking web sites. To reverse this erasure, Indian Country Today has collected cases for the Indian health system. As of April 10, the ICT database contained 861 COVID-19 cases in 287 tribal communities. Infections are growing across Indian Country, but very little is known about the relationship betweencommunity and household characteristics and the rate of COVID-19 spread on tribal lands. This is the question that ateam of Indigenous researchers at UCLA and the University of Arizona are actively working to answer.

This interdisciplinary team includes social demographer Desi Rodriguez-Lonebear, health services researcher Nicolás E.Barceló, economist Randall Akee, and public health researcher Stephanie R. Carroll. Merging the ICT data with the 2018 American Community Survey 5-Year records, they conducted multivariate analyses to identify relationships between the rates of COVID-19 cases per 1000 population and average reservation (or homelands) characteristics.

The results show that by April 10, 2020, the rate of COVID-19 cases per 1000 people was more than four times higher for the populations residing on reservations than for the U.S. as a whole. COVID-19 cases were more likely to occur in tribal communities with a higher proportion of homes lacking indoor plumbing. COVID-19 cases were less likely to occur in tribal communities where households spoke English-only.

This research finds that failure to account for the lack of complete indoor plumbing and access to running water in a pandemic may be an important determinant of increased incidence of COVID-19 cases in tribal communities. Access to relevant information in Indigenous languages may play a key role in the spread of COVID-19 in some tribal communities. Previous studies have identified household plumbing, overcrowding, and language barriers as potential pandemic and disease infection risk factors. These risk factors persist. Specific actions must be taken now to provide potable water, and culturally-relevant information via community preferred media.Urgent funding to strengthen tribal public health and household infrastructure, as delineated in treaties and other agreements, isnecessary to protect American Indian communities from COVID-19 and future pandemics. This research has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

Media Contact Information – Dr. Randall Akee (rakee@ucla.edu)