Here is the opinion in Rothe v. Dept. of Defense.
D.C. Circuit Holds SBA Section 8(a) Does Not Create Racial Classification
Here is the opinion in Rothe v. Dept. of Defense.
Legislation
Draft ROW Bill Requests Tribal Comments By July 13th
Download proposed rule here.
NCAI has been asked to share this draft of the Rights-of-Way bill with Tribes for feedback before it is introduced next Friday by Congressman Luján (D-NM). Turnaround time to provide comments is by middle of next week.
Please review and if you have any feedback, thoughts, or questions, please contact Graham Mason, Legislative Director, Office of Congressman Luján at Graham.Mason@mail.house.gov.
Navajo Nation Washington Office Vacancy
SSA Decides on Appeal Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act Retroactive Up to 3 Years
Download decision from the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review here.
The Social Security Administration argued a Pueblo Pojoaque member was overpaid social security income benefits because she did not claim an elder stipend for years 2012 and 2013. The ALJ held the Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act of 2014, which excludes a tribal member’s benefits from tribal welfare programs, was retroactive to its signing by three years.
Fletcher & Singel on the Historical Basis for the Trust Relationship between the US and Indian Children
Fletcher & Singel have posted “Indian Children and the Federal Tribal Trust Relationship” on SSRN.
Here is the abstract:
This article develops the history of the role of Indian children in the formation of the federal-tribal trust relationship and comes as constitutional challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) are now pending. We conclude the historical record demonstrates the core of the federal-tribal trust relationship is the welfare of Indian children and their relationship to Indian nations. The challenges to ICWA are based on legally and historically false assumptions about federal and state powers in relation to Indian children and the federal government’s trust relationship with Indian children.
Indian children have been a focus of federal Indian affairs at least since the Framing of the Constitution. The Founding Generation initially used Indian children as military and diplomatic pawns, and later undertook a duty of protection to Indian nations and, especially, Indian children. Dozens of Indian treaties memorialize and implement the federal government’s duty to Indian children. Sadly, the United States then catastrophically distorted that duty of protection by deviating from its constitution-based obligations well into the 20th century. It was during this Coercive Period that federal Indian law and policy largely became unmoored from the constitution.
The modern duty of protection, now characterized as a federal general trust relationship, is manifested in federal statutes such as ICWA and various self-determination acts that return self-governance to tribes and acknowledge the United States’ duty of protection to Indian children. The federal duty of protection of internal tribal sovereignty, which has been strongly linked to the welfare of Indian children since the Founding, is now as closely realized as it ever has been throughout American history. In the Self-Determination Era, modern federal laws, including ICWA, constitute a return of federal Indian law and policy to constitutional fidelity.
Rep. Pearce (R-NM) Introduces PROTECT to Congress
Link to concurrent resolution here.
The summary of the resolution upon introduction:
By Mr. PEARCE (for himself, Mr. COLE, and Ms. MCCOLLUM):
Con. Res. 122. Concurrent resolution supporting efforts to stop the theft, illegal possession or sale, transfer, and export of tribal cultural items of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians in the United States and internationally; to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Foreign Affairs, and Natural Resources, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
The press release from Pearce’s office: https://pearce.house.gov/press-release/pearce-introduces-resolution-protect-tribal-artifacts.
The press release from the Association on American Indian Affairs, which puts this issue in its international human rights context: https://internationalrepatriation.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/breaking-pearce-introduces-protect-patrimony-resolution/.
Manitoba Path to Reconciliation Act
Bill text here.
D.C. Circuit Briefs in Patchak v. Jewell
GTB Testimony before Mich. House Natural Resources Committee on Commercial Net Pen Aquaculture
Here:
NIWRC Urges the Supreme Court to Uphold Firearm Protections for Native Survivors of Domestic Violence
Link to press release here.
Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents here.
The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center submitted an amicus in support of the DOJ’s case against two Maine men who violated federal law for possessing firearms when convicted of domestic violence. The men argue that their reckless misdemeanors shouldn’t bar them from owning guns.
“Petitioners attempt to conflate ‘reckless’ domestic violence crimes with ‘accidents,’” NIWRC’s attorney, Mary Kathryn Nagle, a partner at Pipestem Law, PC, states. “Domestic violence crimes prosecuted under tribal law, however, are not accidents. Tribal Courts that prosecute for ‘reckless’ domestic violence crimes establish a standard that requires demonstrating the defendant acted with a ‘conscious disregard’ for the safety and welfare of the defendant’s intimate partner. There is no doubt Congress intended for the Lautenberg Amendment to cover these crimes.”
Six Tribes signed onto the brief: Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Eastern Band of Cherokee, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa, Nottaweseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi, Seminole Nation, and Tulalip Tribes. They are urging the Supreme Court to uphold the convictions for VAWA and Native women, who are more at risk to gun and domestic violence by repeat offenders.
Turtle Talk 
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