Jennifer Granholm

Michigan Indian Casino Money May Fund College Scholarships

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Native American Times, via Pechanga:

LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Legislation headed for Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s desk would allow Michigan school districts to use money received through agreements with tribal-run casinos to fund college scholarship programs.

The Senate unanimously approved the bill on Wednesday.

Michigan has more than 20 casinos run by American Indian tribes. The tribes have agreements with the state that typically provides 2 percent of certain gaming revenue to local governments, including schools.

The bill would allow school districts covered by those agreements to use their proceeds for scholarships for their graduates.

The legislation sponsored by Republican Sen. Ron Jelinek of Three Oaks was sparked by a plan from New Buffalo schools to fund a scholarship program.

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The legislation is Senate Bill 1097.

Detroit News on a Possible Granholm SCT Nomination

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Det. News:

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is apparently on the short list for the U.S. Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Her nomination would be an interesting, unusual choice.

Granholm is included along with more conventional candidates such as U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, former dean of Harvard’s law school and several federal appellate court judges. The other political figure prominently mentioned as a candidate is Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona.

If Granholm is nominated, it will break at least one pattern: all of the current justices are former federal appellate court judges.

It would mark a return to a previous style in nominations, in which political figures were named to the court, such as former California Gov. Earl Warren and former Michigan Gov. Frank Murphy. Murphy distinguished himself in the high court’s history by being one of the few justices to dissent from a now embarrassing Supreme Court ruling during World War II approving the West Coast round-up and removal to remote camps of Americans of Japanese descent.

Granholm would bring to the court political experience as a former governor and state attorney general, albeit one whose gubernatorial record, including a brief government shutdown and a controversial tax hike, has been a disappointment, though she did win a second term against a novice but well-funded opponent.

As one court watcher, Russell Wheeler of the Brookings Institution, told The News, a Granholm strength is that she would “bring empathy as the governor of a state that has had such high unemployment.”

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Supreme Court Nominee Shortlist Part 2 — Gov. Jennifer Granholm & Harold Koh

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

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:

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.

Mich. Gov. Jennifer Granholm to be at White House on Tuesday

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, one of President Barack Obama’s candidates for the Supreme Court, will be at the White House on Tuesday.

An administration official says the Democratic governor is coming to the White House for an event unrelated to the Supreme Court. It is not clear whether Granholm will be meeting with Obama about the upcoming vacancy on the court.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because details of Tuesday’s event have not been announced.

Granholm is among more than six people Obama is considering for the seat on the court now held by Justice David Souter, who is retiring this summer.

The 50-year-old Granholm is a former federal prosecutor and Michigan attorney general.

Granholm Cuts New Deal on Port Huron Casino

Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

I read this just after I assign my students a project to assess the Port Huron deal….

From the Port Huron Times Herald:

Gambling on Port Huron
Granholm’s support improves the odds for a riverfront casino

The long-stalled effort to open an Indian-owned casino in Port Huron has received a major boost from Michigan’s governor, who has thrown her support behind the project.

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