Montana Federal Court Dismisses RICO Suit against Crow Nation Nursing Home, For Now

Here are the new materials in Wilhite v. Littlelight (D. Mont.):

59 Motion to Dismiss

73 Response

76 Reply

77 Magistrate Report

78 DCT Order Adopting Magistrate Report

Prior post here.

Cert Petition in Big Horn County Electric Cooperative Inc. v. Big Man

Here:

Question presented:

Whether an Indian tribal court has subject-matter jurisdiction to adjudicate a tribally created claim as an “other means” of regulating a nonmember federally funded and federally regulated electric cooperative tasked with providing electrical service to all customers within its service territory, including tribal members on Indian reservations?

Lower court materials here.

Update:

Wyoming Appellate Court Orders Hearing in Herrera Matter; State Appeals to State SCT

Here is the opinion in Herrera v. State of Wyoming:

District Court Opinion

State SCT cert stage briefs:

Petition – Writ – review

ResponseObjection – Petition for review

Prior post here.

SCOTUS Reverses in United States v. Cooley

Here is the unanimous opinion from Justice Breyer.

An excerpt:

The question presented is whether an Indian tribe’s police officer has authority to detain temporarily and to search a non-Indian on a public right-of-way that runs through an Indian reservation. The search and detention, we assume, took place based on a potential violation of state or federal law prior to the suspect’s transport to the proper nontribal authorities for prosecution.
We have previously noted that a tribe retains inherent sovereign authority to address “conduct [that] threatens or has some direct effect on . . . the health or welfare of the tribe.” Montana v. United States, 450 U. S. 544, 566 (1981); see also Strate v. A–1 Contractors, 520 U. S. 438, 456, n. 11 (1997). We believe this statement of law governs here. And we hold the tribal officer possesses the authority at issue.

Another excerpt:

More broadly, cross-deputization agreements are difficult to reach, and they often require negotiation between other authorities and the tribes over such matters as training, reciprocal authority to arrest, the “geographical reach of the agreements, the jurisdiction of the parties, liability of officers performing under the agreements, and sovereign immunity.” Fletcher, Fort, & Singel, Indian Country Law Enforcement and Cooperative Public Safety Agreements, 89 Mich. Bar J. 42, 44 (2010).

Here are the briefs and other background materials.