Back by request, here’s the updated report card that ILPC Fellow Peter Vicaire started in 2011.
Link to Vicaire’s post here.
Supreme Court
US Civil Rights Commission Applauds SCOTUS Outcome in Dollar General
Here.
Cert Petition Arising from Police Killing of Ute Tribal Member
Here is the petition in Jones v. Norton:
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.
SCOTUS Opposition to Cert in Lewis v. Clarke
SCOTUSBlog Profile of Ian Gershengorn
The Acting Solicitor General. Here.
Lewis v. Clarke is SCOTUSBlog Petition of the Day
SCOTUS Denies Cert in Jensen v. EXC Inc.
SCOTUS Denies Cert in NLRB, Pauma, and Shinnecock Petitions
Here is the order list.
Cert Petition in Trust Accounting Claim for Sand Creek Descendants
Download petition for a Writ of Certiorari here.
Questions presented:
Whether a treaty promise to pay reparations to a group of Native Americans in the form and amount that is “best adapted to the respected wants and conditions of” said group of Native Americans, and subsequent appropriation of funds by Congress to pay such reparations, create a fiduciary relationship between the United States and said group of Native Americans.
Whether the Administrative Procedures Act waives the United States’ immunity from suit for accounting claims regarding trust mismanagement that begun before the enactment of the Act.
Whether a set of Appropriations Acts by Congress that defer the accrual of trust mismanagement claims against the United States operates as a waiver of the United States’ immunity from suit.
Previous posts in re Flute v. U.S. here.
Impact of Dollar General Affirmance
Huge win for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians tribal court and most especially for the family of John Doe. The case must now return to the tribal court for a hearing on the merits. Presumably, DG will settle and we won’t hear any more about this case. One guesses, however, that if DG loses in a merits battle, it could AGAIN try the federal courts to see if they will hear another challenge to the tribe’s jurisdiction, perhaps more closely tied to something like punitive damages. Highly unlikely I would guess.
The battle waged at oral argument may be repeated again and again throughout Indian country. The constitutional issues are highly salient to the conservatives remaining on the Court. At least one thing we can thank DG for is making the best case for nonmembers on those constitutional issues.
The next Supreme Court Justice will decide whether tribes can assert civil jurisdiction over nonconsenting nonmembers. Meanwhile, tribal court plaintiffs will continue to cite to the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in DG, the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Water Wheel, Merrion, and related cases.
On a more speculative note, hopefully historians will figure out what was going on for the past six and a half months for all of this to end up in a 4-4 tie. One would have to guess that one or more Justices switched votes in the very recent past. Perhaps the Chief Justice assigned himself the majority after oral argument (he did write Plains Commerce and so has a track record), and struggled mightily to hold a majority for the past several months. Or perhaps Samantha Bee’s satire swayed someone at the last minute. 🙂
Turtle Talk 
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