fee to trust

Upright Citizens Brigade Cert Petition Challenging Indian Rights

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Say it isn’t so Amy Poehler!UCB2

Actually, the petition is captioned Upstate Citizens for Equality v. United States:

Cert Petition

Questions presented:

1. Can Congress in the exercise of its Article 1 powers infringe, reduce or diminish the territorial integrity of a State without its prior consent?
2. Does Congress possess plenary power over Indian affairs and if so does it expand the Indian Commerce Clause to authorize the displacement of State rights to territorial integrity?
3. Does the land acquisition in this case via the mechanism of 25 USC § 465 (now 25 USC § 5108), represent a violation of the limits inherently expressed in the Indian Commerce Clause that limit Congress’ power to ‘regulate’ ‘commerce?’
4. Does the 300,000-acre ancient Oneida Indian reservation in New York still exist?

Lower court materials here.

Update (7/7/17)– the adults have entered the room — here is the federal government’s cert opp brief:

Cert Opp

 

SCOTUS Grants Patchak v. Zinke

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the order list.

Lower court materials are here.

D.C. Circuit Briefs in Amador County v. Dept. of Interior

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here:

Amador County Opening Brief

DOI Answer Brief

Reply

Lower court materials in Amador County v. Jewell (D.D.C.):

76-1 Amador County Motion

77 US Motion

81 Amador County Response

83 US Reply

84 DCT Order

Zinke Memorandum on Off-Rez Fee to Trust Acquisitions

Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

Here:

doc (doi) – 2017-04-06 – part 151 (aas-ia re handling of ftt acquisitions)

 

 

First Circuit Rules in Favor of Aquinnah in Gaming Dispute

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the opinion in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).

Briefs here.

SCOTUS Denies Cert in Citizens Against Reservation Shopping v. Zinke

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is today’s order list.

Here are the cert stage briefs.

Central New York Fair Business Assoc. v. Jewell Cert Petition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here:

Cert Petition

Questions presented:

1) Does the Secretary of the Interior have unlimited authority pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 465,25 U.S.C. § 9 and 43 U.S.C. § 1457 to promulgate and exercise the 25 CFR Part 151 regulations to acquire any fee land from state jurisdiction and place it into federal trust status?
2) Whether the Second Circuit misinterpreted the “fact” discussion in this Court’s majority opinion in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation upholding its prior decision that the Oneida state Indian reservation was federal Indian country affecting the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to acquire 14,000 acres of fee land to place into federal trust in the Records of Decision prejudicing these petitioners in applying 5 U.S.C. § 706 in this case.
3) What is left of the Equal Footing Doctrine if the Secretary of the Interior can acquire fee land from the original colony of the State of New York and place it into federal trust for an Indian tribe to exercise jurisdiction over it as federal territorial land?
Lower court materials here.

D.C. Circuit Briefs in Challenge to North Fork Rancheria Trust Acquisition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here are the materials in Stand Up for California! v. Dept. of Interior:

Picayune Rancheria Opening Brief

Stand Up Opening Brief

Federal Brief

North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians Brief

Picayune Reply

Stand Up Reply

Lower court materials here.

Bill Wood on the IRA’s “Under Federal Jurisdiction” Provision

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

William Wood has published Indians, Tribes, and (Federal) Jurisdiction in the University of Kansas Law Review.

Here is an excerpt:

I argue that, doctrinally, all Indian tribes currently recognized as such by the U.S. government—all “federally recognized tribes”— necessarily were under federal jurisdiction in 1934. Under the doctrine of discovery (or discovery doctrine), the United States, like the European powers that preceded it, asserted jurisdiction regarding the Indigenous peoples within its claimed territories and assumed certain obligations to those peoples. As it developed this doctrine into the plenary Indian affairs power doctrine (or plenary power doctrine), the Supreme Court explained that the federal government had since its inception possessed this plenary jurisdiction regarding all Indians within the United States’ boundaries. It was part of the colonial relationship: because the United States claimed sovereignty over their territories, the Indians living there fell under the federal government’s jurisdiction.

Interior Approves Craig Tribal Association’s Land-into-Trust Application

Sarah M Donnelly

Download(PDF): Press Release

Link: Notice in Federal Register

Excerpt:

Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Lawrence S. Roberts, who leads the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs, today announced the Department’s decision to place a 1.08-acre land parcel owned by the Craig Tribal Association, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in the City of Craig, Alaska, into federal Indian trust status. The decision is the first under the Department’s revised rule for taking tribal land into trust in Alaska.