Dollar General Corp. v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Cert Petition

Here:

Dollar General Cert Petition

Questions presented:

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?

Lower court materials here.

The court also voted 9-5 to deny the en banc petition: CA5 Order Denying Dolgencorp En Banc Petition

En banc petition materials here.

Panel materials here.

Lower court decision and materials here.

Sault Tribe Renews Motion to Dismiss Michigan’s Lansing Casino Suit in Federal District Court

Here:

49 Renewed Motion to Dismiss

This, in light of the State’s withdraw of its cert petition.

Supreme Court Cert Petition in FTCA/Bivens Claims against Federal & Tribal Officers

Here is the petition in Dupris v. Proctor:

Dupris Cert Petition

Questions presented:

1. Whether this Court should resolve a split among the circuit courts of appeal, created by the Ninth Circuit panel decision in this matter, as to whether federal agents have “discretion” to arrest an individual without probable cause, for purposes of sovereign immunity under the “discretionary function” doctrine of the Federal Tort Claims Act?
2. Whether this Court should resolve a split among the circuit courts of appeal as to whether a law enforcement officer’s pre-arrest consultation with a prosecutor, standing alone, entitles the officer to qualified immunity?
3. Given the federal agents’ testimony that there were not any “positive identifications” of Petitioners, contradictory to what the agents told the tribal prosecutor, whether this Court should remand pursuant to this Court’s recent holding in Tolan v. Cotton, — U.S. –, 134 S.Ct. 1861 (2014), to ensure that the Court of Appeals properly viewed all evidence in the light most favorable to the Petitioners?

Lower court materials here.

Pro Se Supreme Court Cert Petition Challenging ICWA

Here is the petition in Marcussen v. Sebelius:

Marcussen v Sebelius Cert Petition

Questions Presented:

1) Whether the Rooker Feldman doctrine should be overruled for denying all judicial relief by removing the subject matter jurisdiction of the federal courts to hear any civil action brought against federally mandated statutes enforced in the state courts.

2) Whether Congress has the authority to adopt laws intended to be primarily or exclusively enforced in the state courts.

 

Another Supreme Court Opinion This Term on Time Limitations for Claims

Yesterday the Court decided  CTS Corp. v. Waldburger (non-federal-Indian-law case). The Court held that injured parties cannot bring claims against corporations that pollute if the claim falls outside of a state statute of repose, even if the claim would be otherwise preserved by a federal law. Generally, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) pre-empts state statutes of limitation, because Congress wanted to preserve injuries from pollution that can sometimes take years to discover. However, North Carolina also has a state statute of repose, which bars claims brought more than 10 years after the last culpable act. Since CERCLA only specifically identifies statutes of limitations and not repose, the Court found the claimants are unable to bring their damages claim against the company (which sold the land in 1987).

In her dissent with Justice Breyer, Justice Ginsburg would preserve the claim, finding Congress’s intent was to preserve these claims, regardless of the name of the state limitations statute.

Not only will this decision harm the landowners involved in the case, but those injured by contaminated wells at Camp Lejeune (a Marine base also in North Carolina), who currently have claims pending in the 11th Circuit. Article here from right after oral arguments (though it misjudges J. Kagan, who joined the majority in the case).

Michigan Withdraws Cert Petition in Michigan v. Sault Tribe

Here:

Ltr Clerk Withdraw 13-1372

Continue reading

Sault Ste. Marie Tribe Cert Opposition Brief

Here:

SSM Cert Opp Brief

Filed right before the decision in Michigan v. Bay Mills came out, so it doesn’t take that case’s outcome into consideration.

 

Tribal and Federal Amicus Briefs in Prisoner Religious Freedom Case before SCOTUS

Here:

Amicus NCAI and Huy

Amicus United States

The Court granted the petition here.

SCOTUSblog’s page on the case is here. Petitioner’s brief is here: Petitioner’s Brief

National Native News Podcast; Includes Segment on Bay Mills

Here. Second story in the newscast.

Post-Hoc Revision of Supreme Court Decisions

This has made big news in SCT watcher circles. Prof. Lazarus’ draft Harvard Law Review article (which I suppose is itself subject to later revision) highlights two Indian law decisions, one of the Seminole Nation trust cases of the 1940s and Cass County in 1998.

The excerpt on Cass County:

The errata sheets have acknowledged the mistaken omission of the fact that Justices dissented and of an entire separate opinion of a Justice. The Court has even used the errata sheet to delete part of its rationale. In Cass County v. Leech Lake Bank of Chippewa Indians, decided in 1998, the Court explained that it declined to consider a particular legal issue concerning the scope of the Indian Nonintercourse Act because “the parcels at issue here are not alienable – and therefore not taxable – under the terms of the Indian Nonintercourse Act.” In a subsequent volume of the U.S. Reports, the Court described that reason as erratum and added that “this issue is outside the question presented in the petition for certiorari.”

An on Seminole Nation:

Seminole Nation v. United States, 316 U.S. 651 (1942) (amending opinion to make clear that certain legal issues were available for consideration on remand (see 316 U.S. 286 (1942))