Education

There can be no dispute that the Act is intended to be used to eliminate unlawful discriminatory practices, as defined by Section 5(i)(1), within Pennsylvania. The Commission’s authority is defined by the Act, and the Act’s plain language may not be ignored in an effort, however laudable, to pursue its spirit. Reviewing the Act’s plain language, the record, and the Commission’s Final Opinion and Order, we agree with the Commission that it had jurisdiction over the District and that the claims raised were not barred by the statute of limitations. The Commission’s holding that the District violated Section 5(i)(1) based on the educational harm caused to non-Native American students was predicated on “[t]he non-Native American student bystanders [being] impacted by the District’s discrimination against Native Americans ….” (Final Op. and Order at 48 (emphasis added).) However, the Commission dismissed both claims alleging that the District committed an unlawful discriminatory practice causing harm to Native American students, on the basis that such harm was either speculative or not supported by the evidence. That dismissal was not appealed and is not before us. Because the Commission dismissed the claims of discrimination against Native American students, the predicate under Section 5(i)(1) to sustain the claim for harm to non-Native American students was not there. Therefore, the determination is not supported by the Act’s plain language. Accordingly, the Commission’s Order is reversed.

Federal Suit against Interior and Navajo re: Removal from Indian Education Committee at a Gallup School is Dismissed

June 10, 2021Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials in Chicharello v. Dept. of the Interior (D.N.M.):

1 Complaint

19 Navajo Motion to Dismiss

34 US Motion to Dismiss

35 DCT Order

45 Amended Complaint

47 DCT Order

Fred Hart, Champion of the Pre-Law Summer Institute, Has Passed

June 8, 2021Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Helen Padilla, director of the American Indian Law Center:

To the Pre-Law Summer Institute Alumni, Professors, and Family,

The American Indian Law Center, Inc. regrets to inform our vast network of Pre-Law Summer Institute (PLSI) alumni that UNM School of Law Professor Emeritus and former Dean Fred Hart passed away on June 6, 2021. In 1967, Professor Fred Hart and Dean Tom Christopher created a Special Scholarship Program in Law for American Indians at UNM School of Law. This Special Scholarship Program was the pre-cursor to the Pre-Law Summer Institute. In the 53 years since that pivotal summer, the Pre-Law Summer Institute has remained faithful to its mission to prepare American Indians and Alaska Natives for the rigors of law school by essentially replicating the first semester of law school in an intensive two-month program. For decades, PLSI alumni have been leaders throughout Indian Country and the United States, including U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is the first indigenous member of a President’s cabinet in our country’s history. Professor Hart probably never imagined that the summer program he helped to launch eventually would produce a Secretary of the Interior and countless other leaders. Nonetheless, we at the American Indian Law Center remain ever grateful for and mindful of his role in creating the most successful pre-law prep program in the U.S. for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Fred Hart’s life teaches us all that the efforts of one person can make a difference that echoes far and wide across generations. We offer our sincere condolences to Professor Hart’s family and friends.

We interviewed Professor Hart in 2017 as part of PLSI’s 50^th Anniversary celebration. The PLSI History page link: https://www.ailc-inc.org/plsi-history/

The video interview with Fred Hart is here: