Good guy, always trying to do the right thing.
Here is the obit.
News
Justice Stevens Critical of Seminole Tribe v. Florida & Sovereign Immunity
In his new book, according to the National Law Journal’s Marcia Coyle, Justice Stevens levels strong criticism at the Supreme Court’s decision in Seminole Tribe v. Florida:
The tenor of the Court’s deliberations changed immediately when William Rehnquist became chief justice, according to Stevens. Rehnquist, he writes, was an impartial presiding officer and meticulous in noting the justices’ different positions on issues in each argued case. But Stevens levels some of the book’s sharpest criticism on Rehnquist’s decisions involving state sovereign immunity. Stevens considers the first in a line of 11th Amendment rulings — Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida — one of the Court’s worst rulings in his nearly 35 years. In an interview withThe National Law Journal, he explained that sovereign immunity is a “doctrine of injustice.”
And he calls the retirement of Thurgood Marshall, the “most significant judicial event” of Rehnquist’s tenure as chief, not only because of Marshall’s contributions to the Court’s conference but because of the changes in the Court’s jurisprudence attributable to the votes of his successor, Clarence Thomas.
ICT Article on Local Support for Gun Lake Casino
Here is the article (h/t Pechanga). And an excerpt:
More than 15 entities, including Wayland Township, Allegan County, the Allegan Area Education Service Agency, the cities of Wayland and Allegan, the Barry County Chamber of Commerce, the Barry County Economic Development Alliance, the Gun Lake Business Association, and the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Michigan have filed a collective amici curiae – friend of the court – brief in the petition for certiorari filed with the high court by the Interior Department and the Match-E-Nash-E-Wish Band of Pottawatomi (the Gun Lake Tribe) Indians versus David Patchak. The high court has been asked to review a ruling issued by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last January that said Patchak, a former trustee in Wayland County, Michigan, has standing to bring a lawsuit against the Interior Department for taking into trust 147 acres in Bradley, Michigan, near Grand Rapids where the tribe operates its casino. The casino, which opened in February, created 900 new jobs and has brought a new wave of prosperity to local hotels, restaurants, vendors and other businesses in an area that had a reported 11.9 percent unemployment rate.
“Collectively, the amici curiae represent numerous individuals and businesses that support and have been positively affected by the Band’s economic development activities on the trust land. They submit this brief to explain the substantial local benefits that arise from the cooperative and mutually reinforcing economic development efforts of the Band, the regional governments, and local businesses,” the amici wrote. “The amici curiae urge this Court to grant the petitions for certiorari to resolve the debilitating uncertainty and economic instability created by the court of appeals’ decision, which threatens to stifle economic development in a state and region that has endured a disproportionate amount of economic suffering in recent years.”
NYTs Supreme Court Preview
Here
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Details on Justice Sotomayor’s Visit to UNM Law and Jemez Pueblo
Here.
MIRS Article on Rumors of Lansing Casino
Bernero Talks To Sault Tribe About Casino
The city of Lansing and the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians are in negotiations for a potential downtown casino, two sources with knowledge of the talks told MIRS today.
Lansing Mayor Virg BERNERO had hoped to make an official announcement of a deal sometime this week, but that has been pushed forward two to four weeks. If one were built, organized labor would push to be involved in the construction or renovation of a facility.
“There’s been a lot of discussion,” said UAW Local 602 President Art LUNA, who has been party to some of the discussions. “It’s an opportunity to bring jobs to Lansing.”
Attorney Richard McLELLAN, who consulted with the Bernero administration on the feasibility of a casino in Lansing, said his conclusion is that no more casinos can be built in Michigan, which is not an uncommon opinion, he said. However, Bernero is working with other legal counsel to find another legal avenue.
“If someone can figure out how to do it, more power to them,” McLellan said. “Maybe somebody has a way to do it. If they do, it will be a new theory. It will have to be.”
Sault Tribe Chairman Joe Eitrem would neither confirm nor deny its interest in “any project that may or may not be under consideration at this time.
“The Sault Tribe is regularly presented with economic development and business opportunities that we evaluate relative to our long-term tribal goals and objectives,” Eitrem said. “We will explore any and all business and development opportunities that offer the potential to help us achieve our goals of economic self-sufficiency and improving programs and services for our members.
“If and when we are prepared to announce our firm interest in any such a project, we will inform our members, the news media, and other audiences.”
A phone call to a Bernero spokesman was not returned by MIRS‘ deadline.
GTB Chairman Bailey to Run for Congress
Here.
An excerpt:
Peshawbestown, Mich.— The campaign to represent northern Michigan’s 1st Congressional District is expected to gain a new candidate this weekend.
Derek Bailey, tribal chairman of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, will announce his intention Saturday to run for Congress. He would face ex-state Rep. Gary McDowell of Rudyard in the Democratic August primary. McDowell lost in November to Republican Dr. Dan Benishek of Crystal Falls in a heated race for the seat held by longtime U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee.
The 1st District is shaping up to be Michigan’s most hotly contested election and one with national implications. Democrats are targeting it as one of 25 they can win back in 2012 to retake the House.
Bailey, 38, was elected in 2008 as the youngest chairman of the tribe, a sovereign nation that was federally recognized in 1980.
In 1984, the tribe of more than 4,000 citizens became one of the first in the state to open a casino, the Leelanau Sands Casino. The Turtle Creek Casino and the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa followed.
Tribe Involved in Commemorations of British Arrival in the Straits
From the Petoskey News:
MACKINAW CITY — In the Straits of Mackinac region 250 years ago, the French ruled as the British began making their way westward across the U.S. from the eastern seaboard. It was the time period surrounding the French and Indian War, and in Northern Michigan, everything was about to change.
In early autumn 1761, Patrick McGulpin arrived in Michilimackinac with British soldiers as part of the winding down of the French and Indian War. Their arrival ushered in radical cultural change in the previously French-dominated Straits.
To commemorate this period of change and the influence brought by the British, Emmet County, its historical commission and members of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians will host an event, “The Stage for Change,” from noon-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at McGulpin Point Lighthouse.
***
On Oct. 15, members of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Historical Commission members and county staff will tell the stories of this era. At 1 p.m., Eric Hemenway, repatriation specialist with the tribe, will present overview information and provide a sense of place for how the Native Americans utilized the land later called McGulpin Point.
Ponca Festival at National Museum of American Indian/Justice Sotomayor to Speak
Here:
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian presents “We Are a People: The Ponca Journey,” a free two-day festival featuring music, dance, play readings, a film screening and panel discussions with the Ponca Nation of Nebraska Friday, Oct. 7, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday, Oct. 8, from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
In 1879, a full 75 years before the Supreme Court issued its monumental decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a Ponca chief named Standing Bear stood up, extended his hand, and made a speech: “This hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. If you pierce your hand, you also feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be of the same color as yours. I am a man. The same God made us both.” Standing Bear’s argument convinced the federal judge to declare for the first time in the nation’s history that Native Americans are “persons” under federal law, a declaration that contradicted decades of Indian policy.
The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska invites the public to celebrate this monumental civil rights decision with dance and song, as well as panel discussions with tribal elders whose grandparents traveled the Ponca Trail of Tears. Visitors can listen as they share the story of their nation’s survival, from the tribe’s removal to Indian Territory in 1879 to its termination in 1962 to its restoration as a federally recognized tribe in 1990.
The festival kicks off Friday at 11 a.m. with the East Coast premiere of “Standing Bear’s Footsteps,” a 60-minute documentary that incorporates oral histories, rare photographs and contemporary interviews with members of the Ponca Nation to recount the historic trial of the famous Ponca chief. After the screening, the film’s Emmy-nominated and Peabody award-winning producer, director and writer, Christine Lesiak, will join several citizens of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska to answer questions about the documentary and Ponca history.
On Friday at 1:30 p.m. in the museum’s Rasmuson Theater, Native law scholars will join the museum’s director, Kevin Gover (Pawnee), for “Fact or Fiction? The United States Courts’ Use of History to Shape Native Law Jurisprudence,” a symposium on the origins of American Indian laws and policies in U.S. courts.
The symposium will be webcast live at www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/webcasts. Following the symposium, the public is invited to a reception at 6 p.m. in the museum’s Potomac Atrium featuring Ponca songs and welcoming remarks from Gover, Ponca tribal chairwoman Rebecca White and U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
That evening, at 7:30 p.m., Metropolitan Community College and the Great Plains Theatre Conference will present a staged reading of Mary Kathryn Nagle’s play, Waaxe’s Law—a dramatic re-enactment of the Trial of Chief Standing Bear and Judge Dundy’s seminal ruling. Actors include Louis Headman, an honored elder of the Southern Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma—one of only five people alive today fluent in the Ponca language. A talk-back panel will follow, featuring Headman, White, playwright/attorney Nagle (Cherokee) and Judge Laurie Smith Camp, U.S. District Court, District of Nebraska.
On Saturday, there will be a reading and discussion with Joe Starita, a journalism professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and author of “I Am a Man”: Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice, a work of non-fiction that provides historical background of the famous Ponca chief. The festival closes with a panel discussion Saturday at 4 p.m. in the museum’s Rasmuson Theater featuring tribal elders who will discuss the Ponca Nation’s stories and culture.
Sponsors of the festival include the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, Native American Public Telecommunications, Creighton Law School, Metropolitan Community College and the Great Plains Theatre Conference. For the full schedule of events, click here.
News Coverage of Settlement of Alltel v. Oglala Sioux Tribe
Here, via Pechanga. The Eighth Circuit briefs are here.
An excerpt:
SIOUX FALLS — A federal lawsuit has been dismissed this week after Alltel and the Oglala Sioux Tribe ironed out a dispute over the communications company’s divested assets on the reservation.
The tribe sued Alltel in tribal court in 2009, using a sovereignty argument in an attempt to take the company’s divested assets within its reservation borders. That prompted Alltel to sue the tribe in U.S. District Court in South Dakota in 2010 to prohibit the tribal suit.
Under the June settlement that agreed to dismiss both lawsuits, the company will pay the tribe $1 million and forgive and waive past-due balances owed by tribal customers.
AT&T bought Alltel’s customer base when it acquired former Alltel assets from Verizon last June. Verizon bought Alltel in 2008.
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