Here:
Cert petition here.
Supreme Court
Torres v. Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Cert Petition
Here:
Questions presented:
1. Was Petitioner denied due process of law when the Indian Tribal Chairman Armenta filed a false claim in Bankruptcy as part of a long pattern and campaign of harassment against Petitioner and the Bankruptcy Court refused to impose sanctions, simply because she believed she could not find grounds for sanctions because much of the pattern of the ultra vires conduct of Chairman Armenta did not occur in her court?
2. Has the recent decisions of this court in Bay Mills Indian Community, 572 U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 2024 and the Ninth Circuit court of appeals recent case in Maxwell v. County of San Diego, 708 F.3d 1075 (9th Cir. 2013) expanded the liability of tribal officers engaging in unlawful and abusive acts while purporting to do so on behalf of the Indian tribe and who then seek to invoke the tribes sovereign immunity to evade liability?
3. Even though the sanction motion had to be brought on its face, against the tribe (who waived tribal immunity in the bankruptcy case), the court was authorized in its inherent jurisdiction to impose sanctions against the improper actions of chairman Armenta even though claimed to have been done on behalf of the tribe.
Ninth Circuit materials:
Amici Press Release in Support of Sac & Fox Nation Cert Petition
Key Groups File Amicus Briefs in Support of Supreme Court Petition
To Bring Jim Thorpe Home
Members of Congress, Religious Organizations, NCAI Weigh In to Support Petition by Sac and Fox Nation and Thorpe’s Sons to Return His Remains to Oklahoma
WASHINGTON – A number of groups – including current and former Members of Congress – are expected to file amicus briefs today urging the Supreme Court to hear a case that could significantly impact the civil and human rights of the more than five million Native Americans across the country.
The case centers on the decades-long struggle by Sac and Fox Nation and the sons of American sport legend Jim Thorpe to bring his remains home to Oklahoma for proper burial on his native lands.
The sons and Sac and Fox petitioned the Supreme Court last month to hear the case. They are seeking to uphold a District Court’s ruling that a 1990 law designed to protect Native American remains and artifacts applied in their bid to return the remains of Jim Thorpe to his tribal lands in Oklahoma.
The briefs filed today were submitted by current and former Members of Congress; the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI); a group of leading religious organizations; and a group of preeminent law school professors.
The current and former Members of Congress include an original sponsor of the law cited in this case – the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). This law, sponsored by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell and passed by Congress in 1990, states that institutions receiving federal funds must return the remains and sacred objects of Native Americans to their descendants and tribes. The brief makes clear that the Third Circuit’s ruling violates both the text of the law and Congress’ intent in passing it and would have significant negative legal implications for Native Americans across the country.
“NAGPRA is one of the most critical pieces of Native American human rights legislation ever passed by Congress; it protects that which is most sacred to all of humanity: the right to be buried in accordance with your own religion and under the same soil as your relatives. The Third Circuit’s refusal to enforce the plain language of the statute is very concerning,” said Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, one of the signers of the amicus briefs filed today by Members of Congress.
The family’s efforts to bring Jim Thorpe home began shortly after his third wife interrupted his burial ceremony on the Sac and Fox Nation in 1953 and took his body. She toured the nation for a year seeking the highest bidder for his remains until two small former coal-mining towns in Pennsylvania offered $500 and a promise to establish the Borough of Jim Thorpe. Despite having no connection to the Pennsylvania towns during his lifetime, Mr. Thorpe continues to be buried there and exploited for tourism – a blatant example of historical and ongoing disregard for Native American traditions and culture in modern American society.
“Since when does a court get to decide that someone’s religious beliefs are absurd?” said Stephanie Barclay, Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “No American’s faith should be mocked by our courts. Jim Thorpe said he wanted to be buried with his family and his tribe, and that should have been the end of it. Especially given the history of mistreatment of Native Americans by government officials, there should be particular care taken to protect their religious practices.”
“By ruling that NAGPRA’s protections for religious beliefs in the case were absurd, the Third Circuit opened the door for judges across the country to decide, like Goldilocks, what religious beliefs are ‘just right,’” added Barclay. “Judges have no business making those determinations in our diverse American society.”
In 2013, three years after the Sac and Fox Nation and the Thorpe sons first filed their case, a federal District Court agreed that the Pennsylvania borough is an entity covered by NAGPRA because the town’s operations were subsidized by the federal government. NAGPRA routinely applies to other state and local governments, and so the ruling was not remarkable. However, in 2014, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals invoked a seldom-applied legal theory called the “absurdity doctrine” to overturn the District Court’s decision – a ruling that even the Circuit Court acknowledged contradicted a plain reading of the law. The case raises significant legal concerns about the power of federal courts to disregard the plainly stated intent of laws enacted by Congress.
“In substituting its own views and judicially creating exceptions and requirements, the Third Circuit threatens Native American culture by limiting the process Native Americans utilized to regain sacred cultural items. This Court should grant certiorari to review and reverse that decision,” wrote the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) in their amicus brief filed today.
In their brief, NCAI also underscored this case’s exceptional importance to the 566 federally-recognized Indian tribes, the 5.2 million individual Native Americans and Alaska Natives, and the 1.2 million Native Hawaiians across America, saying “the Third Circuit establishes dangerous precedent that could have substantial impacts on tribal cultures throughout the nation.”
“This is a critically important case,” said Joshua Segal, Partner at Jenner and Block. “In dismissing the NAGPRA suit brought by Jim Thorpe’s sons, the Third Circuit misused the ‘absurdity doctrine’ and ignored other tools of statutory construction. The Court of Appeals’ decision is dangerous for this vital civil rights statute and warrants the Supreme Court’s review.”
Jim Thorpe, given his Indian name Wa-tha-huk (Light after the Lightning or Bright Path) by the Thunder Clan of Black Hawk, was voted Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century in ABC’s Wide World of Sports poll held in 2000, beating out 14 other athletes including Muhammad Ali, Babe Ruth, Jack Nicklaus and Michael Jordan. His remarkable performance at the 1912 Olympic Summer Games, winning gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon, was matched by his skills in professional baseball (1913-19) and professional football (1917-29). In 1920, Jim Thorpe was selected as the first president of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which became the National Football League (NFL) in 1922. Thorpe is a member of ten halls of fame, including the College Football Hall of Fame and the Professional Football Hall of Fame, of which he was an inaugural inductee. In his lifetime, Jim Thorpe also worked to obtain recognition for the rights of Indians and tribes.
The Sac and Fox Nation, Jim Thorpe’s sons and other supporters also launched the “Bring Jim Thorpe Home” campaign last month, which calls for his remains to be returned from the Borough of Jim Thorpe in eastern Pennsylvania to his tribal homelands in Oklahoma, where he wished to be buried. The campaign launched with an event in Oklahoma City in June, and will also include events in St. Paul, Minn., and Washington, D.C., over the coming weeks. More information about the campaign can be found at http://www.narf.org/cases/bring-jim-thorpe-home/; on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/BringThorpeHome and #BringJimThorpeHome; and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/BringJimThorpeHome.
Amicus Briefs in Support of Cert Petition in Sac & Fox Nation v. Borough of Jim Thorpe
Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Background Materials
In anticipation of the briefing of Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the Supreme Court’s next foray in tribal civil jurisdiction, we provide some background materials on the cases and tribal civil jurisdiction in general.
SCOTUS Grants Cert in Menominee Tribe v. United States
Here is the order list. From the order list:
The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted limited to the following question: Whether the D. C. Circuit misapplied this Court’s Holland decision when it ruled that the Tribe was not entitled to equitable tolling of the statute of limitations for filing of Indian Self-Determination Act claims under the Contract Disputes Act?
Supreme Court Grants Cert in Dollar General
Despite the SG’s brief recommending otherwise–order list here.
Previous coverage here.
From the original cert petition by Dollar General:
In this case, a divided panel of the Fifth Circuit held that tribal courts do have that jurisdiction. Five judges dissented from the denial of rehearing en banc. The case accordingly presents the issue the Court left open in Hicks and the Question the Court granted certiorari to decide in Plains Commerce:
Whether Indian tribal courts have jurisdiction to adjudicate civil tort claims against nonmembers, including as a means of regulating the conduct of nonmembers who enter into consensual relationships with a tribe or its members?
Onion: Justice Alito Sent Down to Minors
Here is “Struggling Justice Alito Sent Down To Lower Federal Court.”
Previously, the Court unveiled its spring line: “Supreme Court Debuts New Spaghetti Strap Sun-Robes For Spring.”
SCOTUS Holds Dollar General v. Mississippi Choctaw
Here is today’s order list.
The Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians cert petition was scheduled for the Court’s Conference last Friday. The Court took no action on the petition. That could mean many things or nothing. It could mean the Court is taking one last look before granting the petition. It could mean the Court is looking at denying the petition but one or more Justices has asked the rest of the Court to wait, or for time to write a dissent on the denial of the cert petition. The fact that the United States has recommended a denial strongly weighs against a grant, but the fact that the Court did not immediately denies cert somewhat mitigates the government’s position. We’ll see in next week or the coming weeks.
The cert stage briefs can be accessed here.
Sac and Fox Nation v. Borough of Jim Thorpe Cert Petition
Here:
Thorpe Petition and Appendix (00059355)
Question presented:
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) applies to “any” institution or state or local government agency that receives federal funds and “has possession of, or control over,” Native American human remains. The Act requires these covered entities to inventory those remains and, at the request of Native American tribes or lineal descendants, to return them.
The question presented is whether the absurdity doctrine allows courts to exempt otherwise covered entities from NAGPRA based on how the entity acquired the Native American remains.
Lower court materials here.
News coverage here. Thanks to MKN.
Turtle Talk 
You must be logged in to post a comment.