This edition of our review of the Supreme Court nominee shortlist is short (because I’m on my way to a faculty meeting) — and is just two persons, neither of whom is a sitting judge making the objective judgment that much harder. Part I is here.

4. Gov. Jennifer Granholm

We got excited about her a year ago when some excitable people in Lansing heard she was going to D.C. for a high-level, public appearance with President Obama (turned out to be something else related to the auto industry).

Gov. Granholm has been the governor of the State of Michigan for nearly two full terms.

She has signed the following agreements with Michigan tribes:

• Intergovernmental Climate Accord (6-11-09)
• Tribal Water Accord (2004)
• Economic Accord -SOS-OGC (2005)
• Economic Accord (2006)

And issued an executive directive on inter-governmental relations with Indian tribes in 2004.

Her administration has negotiated and signed several Class III gaming compacts (LTBB, Gun Lake, and LRB, to name a few), as well as a few off-reservation gaming agreements couched as land claims settlements (BMIC and Sault Tribe).

In short, a long record with dealing in Indian affairs in Michigan. Some say she’s only interested in tribes as a cash cow. Some say she’s outstanding. Some say both (like me).

5. Harold Honju Koh, Legal Advisor to the Secretary of State

As far as I can tell, he has no Indian law experience at all, save one case — a NAFTA arbitration involving a claim by Six Nations Grand River Enterprises, a Indian-owned enterprise located in Ontario that does business importing smokes into Indian Country. Koh gave the opening argument in the arbitration. His comments are not yet public, though will be eventually. But the gist is that the Obama Administration is committed to tribal sovereignty, except in regards to the exercise of tribal sovereignty to sell tobacco (something observers of the PACT Act already knew).

More to come.