Tenth Circuit Reverses Indian Country Sexual Assault Conviction for Govt’s Failure to Show Defendant was “Non-Indian” Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Here is the opinion in United States v. Hebert.

Briefs:

Opening Brief

Federal Answer Brief

Reply

Tenth Circuit Again Vacates Federal Conviction of Indian for Reliance on Unverified Tribal Documents to Prove Indian Status

Here is the opinion in United States v. Hatley.

Briefs:

Government Brief

Hatley Brief

Reply

Fort Peck COA Decides Dicey Indian Status Case

Here is the opinion in Jackson v. Fort Peck.

An excerpt:

Congress amended the Indian Civil Rights Act to define Indian status for purposes of tribal court criminal jurisdiction in order to address the United States Supreme Court decision in Duro v. Reina, 495 U.S. 676, 110 S.Ct. 2053, 109 L.Ed.2d 693 (1990). In Duro, the SCOTUS held that Indian tribes lack inherent criminal jurisdiction over non-member Indians. Congress disagreed and passed federal legislation amending the Indian Civil Rights Act to recognize tribal inherent authority over all Indians who commit criminal offenses in Indian country. Unfortunately, for Indian tribes, Congress referred to the definition of Indian under the Major Crimes Act, 18 USC § 1153, in amending the ICRA. However, there is no definition of Indian under 18 USC § 1153 and the federal courts have generally used a federal common-law definition of Indian, first enunciated in United States v. Rogers, 45 US 567, 572, 4 How. 567, 11 L.Ed. 1105 (1846), to establish Indian status for purposes of federal court Indian country jurisdiction. This has created a whole host of problems in the federal courts, see Skibine, Indians, Race and Criminal Jurisdiction in Indian Country, 10 Alb. Govt. L. Rev. 49 (2017). As Professor Skibine notes in this excellent article, the federal courts, especially the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, are perplexed by this whole issue of Indian status for purposes of Indian country jurisdiction and have struggled with whether the definition is a race-based one, that could potentially run afoul of the 5th amendment, or is sufficiently tied to tribal status to survive scrutiny under Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 41 L.Ed.2d 290 (1974) (holding that disparate treatment of Indians is constitutional because of the unique political relationship Indian tribes have with the United States).
¶ 10 Tribal Courts are being dragged into this whole mess, apparently, because of the Duro fix and its reference to the Major Crimes Act. Whereas Indian tribes historically know who is and who is not Indian under tribal customary and common law, those customary practices may not be countenanced any longer under federal law. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has been making itself a pretzel over this common-law definition that is the standard under the MCA and the ICRA. See e.g. United States v. Cruz, 554 F.3d 840 (9th Cir. 2009). However, other federal court decisions recognize that the first prong of the United States v. Rogers test for determining whether a person has some degree of Indian blood may be met by that person having native blood from a non-federally-recognized Tribe, See United States v. Maggi, 598 F.3d 1073 (9th Cir. 2010)(en banc) (reversing panel decision finding that an Indian from the state-recognized Little Shell Band of Pembina Indians did not meet the definition of Indian under United States v. Bruce, 394 F.3d 1215, 1227 (9th Cir. 2005)) provided the person meets the second prong of the Rogers test for affiliating with a federally-recognized Tribe). See also State v. Daniels, 104 Wash.App. 271, 16 P.3d 650, 654 (2001) (having Canadian Indian blood meets the first prong of Rogers, but Court finds second prong was not met thus the Defendant was non-Indian and subject to state court jurisdiction).

Tenth Circuit Holds CDIB Copy + Tribal Authenticating Testimony Insufficient to Prove Indian Status

Here is the opinion in United States v. Harper.

Briefs:

Opening Brief 

Federal Response Brief

Reply

Split Tenth Circuit Panel Vacates Major Crimes Act Conviction Due to Government’s Failure to Prove Indian Status of Defendant

Here is the opinion in United States v. Wood.

Briefs:

Tenth Circuit Reverses Indian Country Crimes Act Conviction cuz Government Did Not Prove Defendant was Non-Indian

Here is the opinion in United States v. Simpkins.

Briefs:

Oklahoma v. Hill Materials [the guy in the NYTs article]

Here:

Article here.

Ninth Circuit Briefs in Constitutional Challenge to MCA as Unjustified Racial Classification

Here are the briefs in United States v. Gordon:

Ok, so there’s only that brief so far. Also, since the defendant stipulated to tribal membership with Nez Perce, I doubt this has legs, but it’s the kind of full-throated attack on the Indian status cases arising under the Indian country criminal jurisdiction statutes that we should expect more regularly — i.e., the kind that relies a LOT on single-authored concurrences and dissents from a certain SCT Justice that tends to rely on discredited historical research.

Here’s the lower court judgment (nothing terribly helpful here since the defendant stipulated to tribal membership):

Miigwetch, Onion people!

Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Decides Indian Status Case

Here are the materials in Wadkins v. State of Oklahoma (Okla. Cr. Crim. App.):

Motion to Vacate

Appellant Brief

State Brief

OCCA Opinion

An excerpt:

The State’s evidence did not refute Wadkins’s evidence of recognition in any meaningful way. The State called one witness, namely Michael Williams, a special agent with the Department of Corrections with expert knowledge of the current prison gangs. Williams testified that the UAB is a white supremacist gang. While there are presently five to ten Native American gangs, he admitted the only Indian gang in existence when Wadkins first went to prison was the Indian Brotherhood. He was unaware of any present affiliation between the UAB and Indian Brotherhood gangs, but admitted gangs sometimes align. He confirmed that DOC records reflected that Wadkins is a former member of the UAB and that Wadkins’s UAB tattoos have been defaced. His testimony neither refuted Wadkins’s evidence of tribal recognition nor showed Wadkins’s membership in the UAB was a renouncement of his Indian status.
The district court’s conclusion–that Wadkins failed to establish recognition–is not supported by the record. While eligibility for tribal membership alone is insufficient to prove recognition, Wadkins’s subsequent enrollment coupled with the other factors, specifically his possession of a CDIB card since childhood and receipt of Indian health services, showed he was recognized as Indian by the Choctaw Nation. Because he is an Indian for purposes of federal criminal law and the charged crimes occurred in Indian Country, the State lacked jurisdiction over this matter.

Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Decision on Choctaw Reservation

Here are the materials in Sizemore v. State of Oklahoma:

District Court Order

Court of Appeals Opinion

Sizemore Brief

State Brief