Supreme Court

Here is the NYTs article discussing post-decision amendments and corrections in Supreme Court opinions more generally.

An excerpt:

On the last day of June, for instance, a deputy solicitor general Michael R. Dreeben, wrote a letter to the court saying there had been a mistake in a decision issued a few weeks before. He asked the court to fix the error, and, a week later, it did.

Writing for the majority in a case about domestic assault on Indian reservations, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had said a federal law applied to some serious crimes “when both perpetrator and victim are Indians.” But what the law itself actually said, quite clearly, was that it applied to all victims, Indians or not.

When Mr. Dreeben’s letter arrived, the court promptly sent it to reporters. When the court amended the decision to adopt the revised language Mr. Dreeben had suggested, its website noted the change.

Updated Supreme Court Stats

July 29, 2016Sarah M Donnelly

Back by request, here’s the updated report card that ILPC Fellow Peter Vicaire started in 2011.

Link to Vicaire’s post here.

US Civil Rights Commission Applauds SCOTUS Outcome in Dollar General

July 27, 2016Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Cert Petition Arising from Police Killing of Ute Tribal Member

July 25, 2016July 25, 2016Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here is the petition in Jones v. Norton:

cert petn

Questions presented:

Where it is undisputed that Plaintiffs/Petitioners Debra Jones and Arden Jones, and their deceased son Todd R. Murray, all had individual rights under the 1868 Ute Tribe treaty with the United States, and where, under the procedural posture of this case, it is undisputed that Plaintiffs’ and their Decedent son’s individual rights under the Treaty were violated, did Plaintiffs state a claim for relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 based on the violation of their treaty rights?
2.Where State police officers have pursued an Indian within Indian country without either probable cause or jurisdictional authority can they be relieved of the common law duty to preserve evidence simply because the officers’ tortious conduct giving rise to the claims against them arose within Indian country?
3.Where there are disputed material facts, can a district court grant summary judgment based upon the court’s opinion that a reasonable jury would decide the case in favor of the summary judgment movant?

Lower court materials here.