Ninth Circuit – Page 85

Ninth Circuit Rejects Self-Defense Challenge to Indian Country Conviction

September 21, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the opinion in U.S. v. Morsette.

An excerpt:

A jury convicted Defendant Richard Charles Morsette ofassault for attacking two people in his home, which is locatedon Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation in Montana. At trial,Defendant claimed that he acted in self-defense. The districtcourt gave a standard jury instruction on self-defense butdeclined to give Defendant’s additional requested instruction:“In the home, the need for self-defense and property defenseis most acute.” The sole question on appeal is whether theSupreme Court’s recent decisions in District of Columbia v.Heller, 128 S. Ct. 2783 (2008), and McDonald v. City of Chicago,130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010), required the court to give therequested additional instruction. We answer that question“no.”

Opening Brief in Second Ninth Circuit Tribal Court Consecutive Sentencing Case

September 11, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

The case is Bustamante v. Valenzuela. And the brief: Appellant’s Opening Brief 9th Cir.100910

Lower court materials are here.

Water Wheel Tribal Court Jurisdiction Case Update

September 8, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

The Ninth Circuit denied Water Wheel’s motion to enjoin its eviction from tribal lands. Here are those materials:

CA9 Order on Emergency Injunction

Water Wheel Injunction Motion

Tribal Court Opposition

Water Wheel Injunction Reply

And the briefing is complete. Here are the merits briefs (amicus briefs here):

Tribal Court Opening Brief

Water Wheel Brief

Tribal Court Second Brief

Water Wheel Reply

Ninth Circuit Decides Tribal Court Civil Jurisdiction Case Involving Personal Injury Claim against Non-Indian Company

September 7, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the unpublished opinion in Town Pump Inc. v. LaPlante.

Here are the materials:

LaPlante Opening Brief

Town Pump Answer Brief

LaPlante Reply Brief

Ninth Circuit Rejects City of Vancouver Challenge to Cowlitz Gaming Ordinance on Standing Grounds

September 1, 2010September 1, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the unpublished opinion in City of Vancouver v. Skibine (h/t Indianz). And the briefs are here.

US DOJ Opposes Suits against Greenhouse Gas Emitters

August 27, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Has implications, one would think, in the Native Village of Kivalina case….

From SCOTUSBlog:

This week the Acting Solicitor General filed a brief on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, urging the Court to vacate a Second Circuit ruling that would permit lawsuits against greenhouse gas emitters for their contributions to climate change. The New York Times covered the filing (via Gabriel Nelson of Greenwire), as does the San Francisco Chronicle’s Bob Egelko, the Washington Post’s Steven Mufson, and Stephen Power of the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire.