News
House Barely Passes VAWA Reauthorization (without Tribal jurisdiction provisions)
Here.
Quote of the Day: Intertribal Casino Wars and Private Casino Interlopers in Wash. and Ore.
Here is the article.
Here is the quote:
“It really burns my ass,” he says, “that we are going to have to spend tribal dollars that could be dedicated to causes like education, health care and poverty to fight these guys off again.”
HEARTH Act Update
The HEARTH Act passed the House 400 to zero on May 15. Here is NCAI’s description:
The HEARTH Act (H.R. 205 and S. 703) has been favorably considered in committee in both the Senate and the House, and we urge the Administration to work with Congress to pass the legislation as soon as possible. The HEARTH Act promotes tribal self-determination in the management of tribal lands and would allow tribes to lease their own lands without the delay and bureaucracy of approval within the BIA. The legislation is also optional; each tribe would decide for itself whether or not to take advantage of the Act. Many tribes desire to manage their own lands and to promote economic development, and they are in the best position to decide for themselves whether this Act suits their needs. The Act expands the Navajo Leasing Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-568) to all federally recognized tribes.
KCBS News in Los Angeles on Disenrollments at Pechanga and Pala
Here.
Justice Scalia Under Fire for Being Too Partisan on the Bench; What’s the Big Deal?
Here, via How Appealing.
Some of the criticism comes from Charles Fried, former SG under Reagan:
Scalia’s tone this year, particularly in cases involving the Obama administration, is raising new criticism over the temperament of a justice who has always relished the give-and- take of the Supreme Court’s public sessions. Some lawyers say Scalia, a 1986 appointee of Republican PresidentRonald Reagan, is crossing the line that separates tough scrutiny from advocacy.
“His questions have been increasingly confrontational,” saidCharles Fried, a Harvard Law School professor who served as Reagan’s top Supreme Court advocate. While the justice has always asked “pointed” questions, in the health-care case “he came across much more like an advocate.”
I know I’ve mentioned Justice Scalia’s use of advocates to state his position (sometimes in a less than successful way), but it seems to me there’s nothing that says he can’t do whatever he wants on the bench (short of outright abuse or something). I bet many (most?) advocates think Justice Scalia’s open and direct questioning is helpful in that it may draw out some of the other Justices’ views and allow for greater engagement with the Justices in the middle on a particular issue. It’s certainly a lot more helpful to the advocates than Justice Thomas’ remarkable swell of silence.
9th Century Mayan Art and Calendar Discovered in Guatemala
Here’s the BBC article. The article portrays the Mayan people as no longer existing, which is troubling and inaccurate. The good news is that the find apparently helps refute the claim that the world is ending this year.
Native Lawyers Join With Other Groups at White House Briefing to Call for End to Judicial Vacancies
From NARF:
Yesterday NARF joined with 28 other national organizations to call for an immediate end to the persistent and destructive obstruction of judicial nominees in the United States Senate. The joint statement released by NARF and others reads as follows:Regardless of where you live or what issues you care about, all Americans deserve a judiciary that works for them. Today’s White House briefing with community leaders, legal experts and advocates for an effective judiciary is an unequivocal statement about that priority.Recent cases demonstrate that no matter the issue – health care, immigration, marriage equality, workers’ rights, employment discrimination, environmental regulation, privacy, and ethics – the courts will continue to play an increasingly important role in the lives of hardworking Americans. But the courts can’t function without judges. Unprecedented obstruction by a minority in the Senate has left the nation with 96 current and future vacancies on the federal courts, leading to a substantial backlog of cases that undermines our system of justice and makes it impossible for most Americans to have their case heard in a timely manner.
Additional coverage here:
Three prominent Oklahomans visited the White House and Capitol Hill on Monday to urge Senate confirmation of federal judicial nominees. The process of approving judges to the federal bench often slows in the months leading up to a presidential election as lawmakers from the party out of power sometimes stall action in hopes that they’ll win the White House and get a chance to replace the nominees with their own.
Former U.S. Attorney Dan Webber, former Seminole Nation Chief Enoch Kelly Haney and Jeremy Aliason, executive director of the National Native American Bar Association, went first to the White House to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler about the vacancy rate.
And here:
WASHINGTON, DC – Four Arizona community leaders, advocates and legal experts will travel to the nation’s capital on Monday, May 7, to meet with White House officials about the vacancy crisis in America’s federal courts. Nationwide, one in nine federal judgeships are vacant. Nearly one out of every ten federal judgeships remains vacant, and 250 million Americans live in a community with a courtroom vacancy.
***
Local invitees to the White House meeting include:
- Lou Hollingsworth, Partner, Hollingsworth Kelly
- Stan Lubin, Member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force
- Nick Enoch, Member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force
- Patty Ferguson, National President, National Native American Bar Association
They will join approximately 150 individuals from 27 states in a day of discussions with White House staff. A deal between Senate Republicans and Democrats to allow judicial nominations to proceed in the Senate expires May 7th, and the advocates are urging the Senate to hold final up-or-down votes on all pending nominees.
Social Media and the Urban Outfitters Appropriation Case
HuffPo on Anaya’s Call to Return the Black Hills to the Indians
Here. An excerpt:
South Dakota’s Black Hills, home to the granite faces carved into Mt. Rushmore, should be restored as Native American tribal lands, a United Nations official recently said.
James Anaya, a U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, completed a fact-finding mission on Friday that included meetings with a number of Native American tribal leaders as well as White House officials. His investigation led him to suggest that the United States take additional steps to repair the nation’s legacy of oppression against Native Americans. He’ll officially propose the plan in an upcoming report.
Of course, Anaya said absolutely no such thing, as the article (quoting the AP) says shortly thereafter notes (following two videos about and a picture of Mount Rushmore). But it’s the kind of political rhetoric that always accompanies (or responds to) calls to return Indian lands to the Indians.
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.