Fletcher on NAICJA/Getches’ “Indian Courts and the Future”

I posted my University of Colorado Law Review symposium paper, “Indian Courts and Fundamental Fairness: Indian Courts and the Future Revisited.” Here is the abstract:

This paper comes out of the University of Colorado Law Review’s symposium issue honoring the late Dean David H. Getches. It begins with Dean Getches’ framework for analyzing Indian courts. I revisit Indian Courts and the Future, the 1978 report drafted by Dean Getches, and the historic context of the report. I compare the 1978 findings to the current state of Indian courts in America. The paper focuses on the ability of Indian courts to successfully guarantee fundamental fairness in the form of due process and the equal protection of the law for individuals under tribal government authority is uniquely tied to the legal infrastructure available to the courts. Congress tried to provide the basic framework in the Indian Civil Rights Act, and many of the most successful tribal justice systems have borrowed from ICRA or developed their own indigenous structure to guarantee due process and equal protection. I argue that ICRA is declining in importance as Indian tribes domesticate federal constitutional guarantees by adopting their own structures to guarantee fundamental fairness.

The Colorado Law Library recently archived Indian Courts and the Future and its two appendices  (here and here). Check them out. The Indian law portion of the symposium is here.

News article on Skagit GOP’s anti-Indian platform

The article, from the Spokesman Review, is here.

Previous posts are here, here, here, and here.

New Student Scholarship on Tribal Waivers of Immunity by Unauthorized Tribal Officials

Adam Keith, a Penn Law student, has published “Who Should Pay for the Errors of the Tribal Agent?: Why Courts Should Enforce Contractual Waivers of Tribal Immunity When an Agent Exceeds Her Authority under Tribal Law.” The article appears in the Penn Journal of Business Law. The article criticizes a recent Sixth Circuit decision on the immunity of Section 17 corporations.

Here is a snippet:

When tribal commercial organizations engage in commercial dealings, their non-tribal counterparties almost universally insist that a waiver of tribal immunity be included within any contractual agreement so as to retain their access to state and federal courts should they decide to litigate any commercial disputes against the tribal entity. In a recent case, the Sixth Circuit weakened the reliability of these waivers by ruling that the court will not enforce such a waiver when a tribal agent assents to one while possessing only apparent authority in the eyes of the tribal counterparty but not actual authority under tribal law. This comment will argue that there are three reasons that courts should enforce such waivers: because doing so is consistent with the principles associated with waivers of tribal immunity; because it will not have deleterious effects on tribal sovereignty; and because it will improve the efficiency of tribal commercial dealings with non-tribal entities.

Opening Ninth Circuit Brief Grand Canyon Skywalk Case

Here:

GCSD Opening Brief

Here is our last posting on the district court case.

Diné CARE File Another Suit to Stop Coal Mine at Navajo Mine

Here is the complaint in Diné Citizens against Ruining Our Environment v. United States Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (D. Colo.):

Dine CARE Complaint

Our posting on the related and previous suit is here.

Update on Skagit County GOP

More materials here:

Bulletin – 2012 Skagit GOP Plank

Skagit GOP Platform 2012

Our previous posts are here and here and here.

Addendum to Report on Anti-Indian Movement in Skagit County, Wash.

Here:

Anti-Indian Movement in Skagit County – 5-1-12

The earlier version of this report is here.

Santa Clara Pueblo Votes to Change Membership Rules

Here.

New Report on Anti-Indianism in the Skagit County, WA GOP

Here’s a new report from Borderlands Research and Education, based in Silverdale, WA: Anti-Indianism in Skagit County – 4-15-2012 Having practiced in Skagit County, it’s good to see this sort of sentiment, which I found to be fairly prevalent, brought to light. I mentioned the State Republican Party’s resolution requesting termination of tribal sovereignty, which this report addresses in considerable detail, in one of my articles. See 13 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 737 n.239 (2011).

LTBB Considering Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage

Here. H/t Pechanga.