Order list here.
Cert petition here. Cert opp briefs here.
Lower court materials here.
local taxation of trust lands
Cert Opposition Briefs in Village of Hobart v. Wisconsin Oneida
Village of Hobart v. Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin Cert Petition
Here:
Questions presented:
1) Whether Congress’ waiver of the federal government’s sovereign immunity, under § 313(a) of the CWA, for enforcement of local stormwater management ordinances, for “any property” over which it has “jurisdiction,” applies to land taken into trust pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 465.
2) Whether lands acquired by an Indian tribe pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 465, within its former reservation boundaries are, removed from state jurisdiction because, as the Seventh Circuit ruled, they are reclassified as “Indian Country.”
Lower court materials here.
Seventh Circuit Holds Oneida Owes No Stormwater Fees to Village of Hobart
Here are the materials in Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin v. Village of Hobart:
An excerpt from Judge Posner’s opinion:
Nevertheless we can imagine an argument, built on our earlier example of the Village’s authority to deploy its firefighters on Indian parcels, for an exception of necessity—a common law graft onto the Clean Water Act—to the Oneida tribe’s exclusive authority over Indian land. But the Village doesn’t argue for such an exception; it doesn’t deny the feasibility of cooperative arrangements between it and the tribe, which has signed cooperative service agreements with other government bodies in the area.
So Hobart loses its case against the tribe. And there is another reason it must lose. Because federal law forbids states and local authorities to tax Indian lands, the tribe can’t be forced to pay the assessment decreed by the challenged ordinance if the assessment is a tax.
Lower court materials here.
Turtle Talk 