Brief in Support of Petitioner here.
U.S. cert petition previously posted here.
Criminal
Senator Heitkamp (D-ND) Highlighting Native Youth on Instagram
In support of S. 246, The Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act, Senator Heidi Heitkamp is highlighting Native youth from North Dakota on her Instagram account starting yesterday. It will continue over the next few days. There are a lot of challenges that Native kids face, but these profiles are meant to highlight kids who have overcome them using the hashtag #AgainstTheOdds.
NAICJA Board of Directors Unanimously Support AG and ILOC Reports
Resolution No. 2015-01
Resolution No. 2015-02
The National American Indian Court Judges Association are supporting the Indian Law and Order Commission’s November 2013 report entitled “A Roadmap for Making Native America Safer,” which “advocates for tribal justice systems to have the ability to fully express their sovereignty by opting out of the current jurisdictional maze, and exercise criminal jurisdiction over all persons without any sentencing limitations, including juveniles.” However, NAICJA prefers that all individuals charged with crimes under this enhanced tribal jurisdiction be provided with civil rights protections equivalent to those guaranteed by the Indian Civil Rights Act, instead of the U.S. Constitution.
NAICJA is also supporting the November 2014 report from the Attorney General’s advisory committee on American Indian/Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence entitled “Ending Violence So Children Can Thrive” which “calls for the restoration of the inherent sovereignty of tribes to assert full criminal jurisdiction over all persons who commit crimes against AI/AN children in Indian country.”
Federal Agents Raid Menominee Tribe
U.S. News report here.
Search warrant and affidavits (PDF) here.
The Tribe is being accused of growing hemp plants with too much THC in them, but the Tribe says they were upfront to the Feds about seedlings they received for industrial hemp research:
Former U.S. Attorney for North Dakota Tim Purdon is working with the Menominee tribe and blasted the raid as a “waste of resources” that “is exacerbated by the fact that the Tribe had agreed to act itself to destroy individual strains of the hemp crop that the Tribe and the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed were problematic.”
“This misallocation of federal resources is exactly what the [2013] Cole and [2014] Wilkinson Memos were designed to prevent,” he said, referring to the Justice Department memos allowing states and tribes, respectively, to regulate marijuana.
The Menominee Tribe legalized marijuana back in August, but the government has not yet enacted regulations concerning its sale and production.
Ninth Circuit Affirms Conviction for Theft from Blackfeet Tribe’s Po’Ka Project
Here is the opinion in United States v. Conti.
Washington to Retrocede PL 280 Jurisdiction over Yakama Reservation
Here.
Ninth Circuit Oral Argument Audio in Oklevueha Native American Church v. Lynch
Updated Ninth Circuit Briefs in United States v. Alvirez
Here:
The Ninth Circuit panel decided this one way back in 2013, but withdrew the opinion to await the en banc decision in United States v. Zepeda.
Seneca-Cayuga, Seneca, and Ho-Chunk Tribal Members and Enterprise Employees Plead Guilty to Violations of Federal Cigarette Trafficking Law
Here are selected materials in United States v. Sheffler (W.D. Mo.):
United States v. Bryant Cert Petition — Federal Habitual Offender Statute and Uncounseled Tribal Court Convictions
Here is the petition:
Question presented:
Section 117(a) of Title 18, United States Code, makes it a federal crime for any person to “commit[] a domestic assault within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or Indian country” if the person “has a final conviction on at least 2 separate prior occasions in Federal, State, or Indian tribal court proceedings for” enumerated domestic-violence offenses. 18 U.S.C. 117(a).
Turtle Talk 
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