Here:
Miranda 9th Cir. Appellants Brief Final as Filed
Miranda 9th Cir. Addendum to Appellants Brief as filed
Lower court materials here.
Criminal
Oklahoma Supreme Court Applies Tobacco MSA to Native Wholesale Supply
Here is the opinion in Oklahoma ex rel. Edmundson v. Native Wholesale Supply.
An excerpt:
This appeal presents two dispositive issues for the court’s resolution: (1) Is an Oklahoma court a constitutionally sanctioned forum for the exercise of personal jurisdiction to adjudicate an alleged violation of a state statute by Native Wholesale Supply, a nonresident corporation that claims to have no minimum contacts with Oklahoma? and (2) Does federal law bar Oklahoma from enforcing the Complementary Act against Native Wholesale Supply, a tribally-chartered corporation wholly owned by an individual of Native-American ancestry? We answer the first question in the affirmative and the second in the negative.
Tribal Issues in New Arizona Immigration Law
Federal Court Dismisses Claim by Federal Prisoner against Menominee Tribe
Here is the opinion in Sturdevant v. Menominee Indian Tribe (W.D. Wis.): DCT Order Dismissing Sturdevant Complaint
New Scholarship on Major Crimes Act Prosecutions and Race
Brian L. Lewis has published his excellent paper, “Do You Know What You Are? You Are What You Is; You Is What You Am: Indian Status for the Purpose of Federal Criminal Jurisdiction and the Current Split in the Court of Appeals,” in the Harvard Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice (formerly the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal).
Paper here: Lewis
The paper delves into the recent cases involving Indian status of criminal defendants prosecuted under the Major Crimes Act; and recent cases such as Cruz and Stymiest, where the Ninth and Eighth Circuits, respectively, reached conflicting conclusions on whether nonenrolled Indians are “Indian” under the statute.
News Coverage of Senate Passage of Tribal Law and Order Act
From the Denver Post (Michael Riley; link to 2007 articles in the Post on this question):
WASHINGTON — With spiraling crime rates battering Indian reservations across the West, the Senate on Wednesday passed legislation designed to plug gaping holes in the way crimes are investigated and prosecuted on Indian lands.
The legislation requires federal prosecutors to justify dropped cases to tribal leaders and allows tribal courts to impose sentences of up to three years, expanding authority that has been limited for more than 100 years.
It gives tribal police access to a key national crime database and allows felony crimes to be tried for the first time on the reservations where they occur.
“This will signify a dramatic change in the years ahead in the personal safety of a lot of American Indians who
have been abused, who have been victims of crime,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who chairs the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
The system for investigating and prosecuting crimes on Indian reservations is complex — even arcane, according to some critics.
Felony crime is the sole responsibility of federal prosecutors, often based in cities hundreds of miles away. Under a law passed in 1885, the authority of tribal courts is severely limited and they can impose sentences of no more than a year.
Tribal leaders for years have accused U.S. attorneys of doing their jobs poorly, often showing little interest in prosecuting the rapes, assaults or small-time drug peddling that devastate some tribal communities.
In 2009, federal prosecutors declined to prosecute nearly half of all Indian Country felony cases presented to them, while federal crime statistics show that some reservations have violent-crime rates that are 20 times the national average.
But there is also wide disagreement on fixing the problem.
Expanding the authority of tribal courts has long been considered controversial, because in many cases tribal prosecutors and even judges aren’t required to have law degrees. Tribal court decisions in many cases are not appealable to federal court.
The Tribal Law and Order Act approved Wednesday — it passed with unanimous consent, meaning there was no formal, recorded vote — attempts to address those concerns.
Only tribal courts that meet certain standards, including minimum training requirements and the guarantee of counsel for indigent defendants, will be granted the new authority.
For the first time, the legislation also requires the Justice Department to make public yearly statistics on the number of Indian Country cases declined by federal prosecutors — and each declination must be reported to tribal leaders.
The bill also makes it easier to deputize tribal police so that they can enforce federal laws, including giving them jurisdiction over non-Indians.
Civil Rights Claim by Crow Indians against FBI Dismissed
Mostly. One claim against an FBI officer remains.
The case is Cole v. FBI (D. Mont.): DCT Order Dismissing Cole Plaintiffs
The complaint is here: Cole Complaint.
Excerpts from news coverage here, via Pechanga:
Cebull agreed that the Coles and Springfield lacked standing to assert rights as individuals because they did not allege they had been the subject of discriminatory law enforcement. The link between injuries alleged by the plaintiffs and the alleged misconduct of the government employees was too weak to meet requirements for bringing a case, he said.
The court, however, held that the plaintiffs had standing to assert an equal-protection claim against Oravec and did not dismiss that claim.
Cebull agreed with Ostby that factual allegations “create an inference’’ that Oravec was “motivated by racial animus when conducting his investigation into the deaths of Steven Bearcrane and Robert Springfield.”
The plaintiffs alleged that Oravec had been heard to say that female American Indian victims of sexual assault “were asking for assault or words to that effect.” And, they claimed, Oravec tried to hinder crime investigations and that when the Coles visited the FBI offices to ask about the investigation into their son’s death, he attempted to intimidate Cletus Cole by taking him out of camera range and showing him his gun.
Tribal Law and Order Act Passes Senate as Part of Amendments to Indian Arts and Crafts Act
Here’s the bill: H.R. 725.
Update on False Claims Act Charges against Two Menominee Individuals
In the last update here, we reported that the tribal defendants in the federal False Claims Act case, United States v. Menominee Tribal Enterprises (W.D. Wis.), had been dismissed out. Two individuals remained. They were acquitted in a jury trial — Jury Verdict Form.
They then filed for attorney fees under the Equal Justice Act. The motion was denied: DCT Order Denying Atty Fees.
Federal Court Dismisses Federal Prisoner’s Complaint against Tribal Police
Mostly.
Here is the slip opinion in Johnson v. Pottawatomie Tribal Police Dept. (D. Kan.): Johnson v Pottawatomi Tribal Police
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.