Briefs in Opposition to Alaska’s Effort to Once Again Open Up the Alaska Native Subsistence Rights Litigation

Here are the new briefs in Alaska v. United States:

Federal BIO

Tribal BIO

Cert petition here.

OMG this is ridiculous.

Alaska v. United States Cert Petition [Alaska Native fishing subsistence rights]

Here:

Question presented:

Whether the United States can regulate fishing on Alaska’s navigable waters under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, when its statutory authority is limited to “public lands” and that term is defined as “lands, waters, and interests therein … the title to which is in the United States.”

Lower court materials here.

Ninth Circuit Reaffirms Katie John Trilogy and Affirms Injunction against State of Alaska

Here is the opinion in United States v. State of Alaska:

Briefs here.

Ninth Circuit Materials in Alaska v. US [subsistence fishing]

Here are the briefs (that I choose to post because the others are ridiculous):

Alaska Opening Brief

AFN Brief  

AVCP Brief

Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Brief

US Answer Brief

Alaska Reply 

Robert Anderson on the Katie John Litigation

Robert T. Anderson has published “The Katie John Litigation: A Continuing Search for Alaska Native Fishing Rights After ANCSA” in the Arizona State Law Journal (PDF).

Highly recommended!!!!

Supreme Court Denies Cert in Alaska v. Jewell — Alaska Subsistence Rights

Very big deal!

Here is the order list.

Cert stage briefs here:

State of Alaska Petition and Appendix

Federal Cert Opp Brief

AFN Cert Opp

Lower court materials here.

Cert Opposition Briefs in Katie John Appeal

Here are the opposition briefs in Alaska v. Jewell:

Federal Cert Opp Brief

Katie John Cert Opp [A second brief with the appendix: AFN Alaska v Jewell BIO app]

Cert petition here.

Alaska Seeks Supreme Court Review of Alaska Native Susbistence Rights under Katie John

Here is the petition in Alaska v. Jewell:

State of Alaska Petition and Appendix

Questions presented:

1. Whether the Ninth Circuit properly held—in conflict with this Court’s decisions—that the federal reserved water rights doctrine authorizes the unprecedented federal takeover of Alaska’s navigable waters sanctioned by the 1999 Rule.
2. Whether the Ninth Circuit properly proceeded on the premise—which also conflicts with this Court’s decisions—that ANILCA could be interpreted to federalize navigable waters at all given Congress’s silence on the Act’s application to navigable waters.

Lower court materials here.

Ninth Circuit Affirms Katie John Subsistence Rights Ruling

Here is the opinion.

And the court’s syllabus:

The panel affirmed the district court’s decisions upholding the 1999 Final Rules promulgated by the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to implement part of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act concerning subsistence fishing and hunting rights.

In Alaska v. Babbitt, 72 F.3d 698 (9th Cir. 1995) (“Katie John I”), the court held that, because Congress included subsistence fishing in Title VIII, the Act applied to some of Alaska’s navigable waters. The 1999 Rules identified which navigable waters within Alaska constituted “public lands” under Title VIII of the Act, which provides a priority to rural Alaska residents for subsistence hunting and fishing on such lands.

As threshold issues, the panel held that the Secretaries appropriately used notice-and-comment rulemaking, rather than adjudication, to identify whose waters are “public lands” for the purpose of determining the scope of the Act’s rural subsistence policy; and that in construing the term “public lands,” the Secretaries were entitled to “some deference.” The panel concluded that, in the 1999 Rules, the Secretaries applied Katie John I and the federal reserved water rights doctrine in a principled manner. The panel held that it was reasonable for the Secretaries to decide that: the “public lands” subject to the Act’s rural subsistence priority included the waters within and adjacent to federal reservations; and reserved water rights for Alaska Native Settlement allotments were best determined on a case-by-case basis.

Briefs are here.

Lower court materials are here.

Ninth Circuit Briefs in Katie John Subsistence Rights Appeal

Here are the materials in John v. United States:

John Opening Brief

Alaska Opening Brief

Intervenors Opening Brief

State Amicus Brief — NM — WY — CO

Alaska Answering Brief

Brief of Federal Appellees in John v US

Intervenors Response to Alaska

Alaska Reply

John Reply Brief

Lower court materials here.