By Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier and Kelsey Haake In a momentous decision on June 6, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a resounding victory for Native American tribes. The Court ruled that the Indian Health Service (IHS)...more
On February 29, 2024, the Ninth Circuit issued its opinion in Lexington Insurance Co. v. Smith (Suquamish Tribe). The Court affirmed the tribal court’s subject-matter jurisdiction over Lexington pursuant to the Tribe’s...more
3/8/2024
/ Appeals ,
Dismissal With Prejudice ,
Federal Court Litigation ,
Insurance Industry ,
Jurisdiction ,
Lack of Jurisdiction ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Reservation of Rights ,
SCOTUS ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Surplus Lines Insurance ,
Tribal Courts
On June 15, 2023, the United States Supreme Court held that “the Bankruptcy Code unambiguously abrogates the sovereign immunity of all governments, including federally recognized Indian tribes.”1 In other words, Native...more
A three-panel Arizona Court of Appeals ("the panel”) unanimously ruled on January 10, 2023, that, under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the gross proceeds from work performed under federal contracts on Native American...more
On January 13, 2023, the Supreme Court granted the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians’ Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to resolve the split of circuits on whether Section 106 of the Bankruptcy Code...more
On July 28, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Court” or “Ninth Circuit”) issued a significant decision addressing the Class III gaming compact negotiation process between a state and a tribe as required by the Federal...more
In a 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, on June 29, that the Federal Government and the State have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against...more
In a 5-4 vote on Wednesday, June 15, the United States Supreme Court resolved a longstanding dispute about the ability of Texas to control gaming conducted by the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Tribe (the “Tribe”).
The case...more
In a 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a Native American defendant who was previously prosecuted in a special federal administrative tribal court can be charged in a federal court for the same incident...more
Deepening a split of circuits, the First Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Bankruptcy Code waived the sovereign immunity of Native American Tribes. The May 6, 2022 opinion by Judge Sandra L. Lynch sided with the Ninth...more
On April 26, 2022, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a significant unanimous decision addressing the applicability of a state ad valorem property tax on a power plant located on Indian land. The Arizona Supreme Court held that...more
On June 25, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court held that Alaska Native Corporations (“ANCs”), are entitled to COVID-19 relief funds; solidifying that ANCs qualify as tribes. The ruling in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of...more
On June 7, 2021, the United States Supreme Court denied Seneca County’s (New York) petition for certiorari, thus leaving in place the Second Circuit’s decision in Cayuga Indian Nation of New York v. Seneca County, New York,...more
On June 1, in a landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unanimously that tribal police officers have the authority to temporarily detain and search non-Natives on public rights-of-way through Indian lands if they are...more
After much speculation and anticipation, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled that the States may conduct sports betting, and struck down the Professional & Amateur Sports Protection Act (“PASPA”). In the case of Murphy v....more
5/21/2018
/ Anti-Commandeering ,
Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic Association ,
NCAA ,
PASPA ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Sports Gambling ,
State Sovereignty ,
States Rights ,
Tenth Amendment
In its next term, the United States Supreme Court will hear its first case addressing the limits of tribal jurisdiction in seven years, having granted a petition for a writ of certiorari to Dolgencorp and its parent company,...more
In response to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U.S. 379 (2009), the Office of the Solicitor for the United States Department of the Interior issued a memorandum opinion on March 12, 2014,...more