Indian Civil Rights Act

Federal Lawyer Articles on Indian Law

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The March/April 2008 issue of the Federal Lawyer featured several articles on Indian law.

Zeke Fletcher on the legacy of Martinez, Wheeler, and Oliphant: trappedinthespringof1978

Casey Douma on the Indian Civil Rights Act: 40thanniversaryoficra

Mike McBride and Susan Huntsman on tribal labor relations: organizedlaborstrategiesforindiangaming

Goodman and Maxfield on the NIGC’s gaming management contracting: isthatyourfinalanswergoodmanmaxfield

Matthew Fletcher on the Supreme Court and the rule of law: supremecourtandtheruleoflaw

Bouschor Appeal to Sault Tribal Court Denied

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

NEWS RELEASE

SAULT STE. MARIE
TRIBE OF
CHIPPEWA INDIANS

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Bouschor’s appeal to become candidate denied

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – (March 7) – The Sault Tribe Court of Appeals issued a ruling today denying former tribal chairman Bernard Bouschor’s appeal on the election committee’s ruling that according to a specific tribal law, Mr. Bouschor and other defendants in an ongoing lawsuit are not eligible to be a candidate for elected office until such litigation has been resolved.

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Empirical Research on Tribal Courts and Customary Law Posted on SSRN

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

My working paper, “Tribal Courts, the Indian Civil Rights Act, and Customary Law: Preliminary Data,” has been posted on SSRN. Chi-miigwetch to Alicia Ivory for all her hard work in helping with the research (you can see her contributions in the lengthy appendices at the end of the paper).

Here’s the abstract:

This study is an attempt to assess the validity of my theory that tribal courts do not apply “unusually difficult” laws in cases involving nonmembers. I theorized that in most cases (if not the vast, overwhelming majority), tribal courts apply a kind of “intertribal common law,” which consists of the application of tribal statutes that mirror federal and state statutes and the federal and state cases that interpret them.

Of the 120 cases involving an ICRA issue, tribal court judges applied federal and state case law as persuasive (and often controlling law) in 114 cases (95 percent). And, of the six cases in which the tribal court explicitly refused to apply federal or state case law, either the parties involved tribal members in a domestic dispute or else the tribal court held that its interpretation of the substantive provisions of ICRA were stronger or more protective of individual rights than would otherwise be available in parallel federal or state cases.

WSJ Article on Tribal Judges

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Thanks to Mike McBride and June Mamagona Fletcher, you can download the entire article here without having to register with the Journal:

Wall Street Journal Article on Tribal Judges and Federal Indian Law

MicroReview of Campbell’s Book on Sam Ervin

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

The University of North Carolina Press just published “Senator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers,” by Karl E. Campbell (Appalachian State).

Here is a micro-review:

Sen. Ervin was the sponsor of the Indian Civil Rights Act. He was also an ardent opponent of civil rights legislation (ironically as chair of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights) and chair of the Senate Watergate hearings. On their face, these two positions seem contradictory, but they really are not. Nevertheless, Prof. Campbell highlights ICRA as an example of Ervin’s civil libertarian streak.

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Anderson v. Henson — ICRA Habeas Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Anderson v. Henson is a 25 USC 1303 (ICRA Habeas) claim that the Gila River tribal court was improperly installed and therefore convictions in that court are invalid. The District of Arizona rejected the claim.

Here are the materials:

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MSU 5th Annual Conference — Call for Papers: Deadline Feb. 1, 2008

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

CALL FOR PAPERS

5th Annual MSU Indigenous Law Conference

October 10-11, 2008 @ MSU Law College

Forty Years of the Indian Civil Rights Act – History, Tribal Law, and Modern Challenges

The Indian Civil Rights Act will be 40 years old in 2008 – and Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez will be 30. We have decided to dedicate our 5th annual conference to the Act and to Martinez. Confirmed speakers already include Catharine MacKinnon, Gloria Valencia-Weber, Carole Goldberg, Duane Champagne, Stacy Leeds, Kristen Carpenter, Angela Riley, and others.

Our vision for this year’s conference is to solicit papers that cover a specific provision in the Indian Civil Rights Act, e.g., free speech, freedom of religion, due process, equal protection, and so on. We want academics, practitioners, tribal judges, tribal leaders – anyone that has something important to say about this very important statute. We will collect the best of these papers into an edited collection for publication with a major university press, co-edited by Kristen A. Carpenter, Matthew L.M. Fletcher, and Angela R. Riley.

The authors of the paper abstracts selected will present their papers at the conference at MSU law college. We anticipate that there will be commentators for each paper.

Please send a title and a short abstract, with contact information, to matthew.fletcher@law.msu.edu by the deadline or call (517) 432-6909 with questions.

Deadline for Proposals – February 1, 2008