Supreme Court – Page 52

U.S. Supreme Court Reverses and Remands Lewis v. Clarke

April 25, 2017Kate Fort2 Comments

Opinion here.

JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court.

Indian tribes are generally entitled to immunity from suit. This Court has considered the scope of that immunity in a number of circumstances. This case presents an ordinary negligence action brought against a tribal employee in state court under state law. We granted certiorari to resolve whether an Indian tribe’s sovereign immunity bars individual-capacity damages actions against tribal employees for torts committed within the scope of their employment and for which the employees are indemnified by the tribe.

We hold that, in a suit brought against a tribal employee in his individual capacity, the employee, not the tribe, is the real party in interest and the tribe’s sovereign immunity is not implicated. That an employee was acting within the scope of his employment at the time the tort was committed is not, on its own, sufficient to bar a suit against that employee on the basis of tribal sovereign immunity. We hold further that an indemnification provision does not extend a tribe’s sovereign immunity where it otherwise would not reach. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.

Previous posts, briefs, and other documents here.

Cert Petition Filed in Case Challenging Constitutionality of SBA Section 8(a)

April 20, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the petition in Rothe v. Dept. of Defense:

Cert Petition

Questions presented:

1. Whether a statutory program that requires an agency to distribute benefits to “socially disadvantaged individuals,” and defines “socially disadvantaged” in terms of membership in certain racial minority groups, classifies on the basis of race and is thus subject to strict scrutiny.

2. Whether a statute that may not classify exclusively on the basis of race, but uses race as a factor in determining eligibility for benefits, is subject to strict scrutiny.

Lower court opinion here.

SCOTUS Denies Cert in Sun v. Mashantucket

April 17, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is today’s order list.

Cert petition here.

Elie Mystal on the Chief Justice

April 12, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is “John Roberts, Silent During The Garland Process, Suddenly Worries About Partisanship.”

An excerpt:

When Mitch McConnell decided that black presidents only get to be president for seven years and refused to hold a hearing on Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court, there was only one man in the country who could have stopped him: Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts could have spoken up. He could have urged the Senate to perform its Constitutional duty. He could have explained how the Senate’s actions were hurting the Court.

Instead, he said nothing.

WaPo: “If Gorsuch is like his colleagues, he’ll constantly interrupt the female justices”

April 11, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

The empirical research backing this claim is here.

SCOTUS Denies Cert in Citizens Against Reservation Shopping v. Zinke

April 3, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is today’s order list.

Here are the cert stage briefs.

Gorsuch: “Tribes are . . . Sovereign Nations”

March 22, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

Here is a link to a short clip created by a user on C-SPAN from Judge Gorsuch’s testimony. Judge Gorsuch mentions his decisions in cases involving the Ute Tribe and the Osage Tribe. Thanks to John Dossett.

Central New York Fair Business Assoc. v. Jewell Cert Petition

March 22, 2017Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

Here:

Cert Petition

Questions presented:

1) Does the Secretary of the Interior have unlimited authority pursuant to 25 U.S.C. § 465,25 U.S.C. § 9 and 43 U.S.C. § 1457 to promulgate and exercise the 25 CFR Part 151 regulations to acquire any fee land from state jurisdiction and place it into federal trust status?

2) Whether the Second Circuit misinterpreted the “fact” discussion in this Court’s majority opinion in City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation upholding its prior decision that the Oneida state Indian reservation was federal Indian country affecting the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to acquire 14,000 acres of fee land to place into federal trust in the Records of Decision prejudicing these petitioners in applying 5 U.S.C. § 706 in this case.

3) What is left of the Equal Footing Doctrine if the Secretary of the Interior can acquire fee land from the original colony of the State of New York and place it into federal trust for an Indian tribe to exercise jurisdiction over it as federal territorial land?