Supreme Court Miniseries: Tribal Rights in the 21st Century
DE Talk | Building Foundational Relationships in Native American & Tribal Communities
Proof in Trial: Appellate Edition: Stand Up for California et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior et al.
Tribal Tax Exemption Under McGirt Gains Preliminary Victory
McGirt Uncertainty Extends to Federal Environmental Regulations in Indian Country
Revisiting McGirt: New Legal Developments Challenge Oklahoma’s Landmark Ruling
The Immediate and Lasting Impacts of McGirt: A Novel Ruling for Oklahoma
A Way Forward: Energy Industry Ready to Fuel Canada's Recovery
Jenner & Block filed an amicus brief before the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe in South Point Energy Center LLC v. Arizona Department of Revenue. The brief calls on the Court to...more
Nearly one hundred (100) “[d]efendants brazenly profit from illegal gambling” in California, according to a legal complaint filed by seven (7) casino-owning Native American tribes in the Superior Court of California in...more
On August 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit decided a case addressing Nebraska’s authority to require tribal cigarette manufacturers that are not parties to the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) to comply...more
On May 1, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued a sweeping decision impacting sovereign immunity for tribally-owned government contractors. The first-of-its-kind appellate decision concludes that by...more
Recent trends in privacy legislation, including the passage of California Consumer Privacy Act, more commonly referred to as the CCPA, as well as copycat laws in at least nine other states, make clear the intention of state...more
This is a story that connects some dots we might well imagine have no connection: a 19th century murder, a 21st century adoption, Native tribal sovereignty, Supreme Court Justices past and present, and a law firm where we...more
On June 29, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the Western District of Wisconsin’s decision that an entity created under tribal law was entitled to immunity as an arm of the tribe and dismissed claims characterized...more
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
Section 106(a) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code expressly abrogates the sovereign immunity of "governmental units" for purposes of certain bankruptcy-related litigation. A split of authority concerning whether that abrogation...more
There has been a recent decision on an interesting case involving a challenge to the ability of the federal government to provide benefits or rights to Tribes and other Native organizations....more
The United States recognizes nearly 600 tribes in more than 30 states and tribal sovereignty is protected in the U.S. Constitution, but local governments often lack a general knowledge of tribes’ culture and legal status. In...more
First Circuit - Coughlin v. Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians - The issue was whether tribal sovereign immunity protected the tribal lender from the automatic stay. On May 6, 2022, the First Circuit...more
This week, the Ninth Circuit takes a deep look at tribal sovereign immunity. OERTWICH V. TRADITIONAL VILLAGE OF TOGIAK - The Court holds that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the plaintiff’s...more
In a decision published October 19, 2020, Judge Frank J. Bailey of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts found that an Indian tribe was not subject to the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay. This decision...more
For over 20 years, the State of California has used tribal gaming compacts to accomplish what federal law and tribal sovereignty would otherwise forbid: forcing tribes to follow state labor law in their casinos. Recently...more
New Mexico has been making waves with several noteworthy labor and employment developments. This Lightbulb will highlight interesting legal quirks in the Land of Enchantment, along with recently enacted and proposed...more
On January 16, 2020, the New Mexico Supreme Court issued its decision in Mendoza v. Isleta Resort and Casino, holding that a tribe does not waive its sovereign immunity to workers’ compensation claims merely by committing in...more
NATIVE AMERICAN LAW - Key Ruling on Native American Sovereign Immunity Stands—for Now - The Fourth Circuit case Williams v. Big Picture Loans is being hailed as a major victory for Native American sovereign immunity...more
On July 20, 2018 in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Allergan, Inc. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Dyk, Moore and Reyna JJ) held that Native American (“Indian”) Tribes do...more
On April 24, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its decision in the case of Gingras v. Think Finance, Inc., 2019 WL 1780951 (2d Cir. April 24, 2019), a decision with far-reaching implications on...more
In Microsoft Corp. v. Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, the PTAB refused to stay ten IPRs filed by Microsoft while Patent Owner St. Regis appeals a Federal Circuit decision that tribal sovereign immunity cannot be asserted in an IPR...more
When a Tribe thinks about risk management and insurance, it may first wonder whether it really needs to worry about it because of its unique defense of sovereign immunity. This defense, however, has come under much fire in...more
On July 20 in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Allergan, Inc. v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Dyk, Moore and Reyna JJ) held that Native American (“Indian”) Tribes do not...more
On Friday, July 20, 2018, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit addressed the controversial application of sovereign immunity for inter partes review (“IPR”) in Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. In...more
This ruling may have eliminated the practice of transferring patents to Native American tribes for immunization from IPR proceedings. The Federal Circuit, in a matter of first impression, has ruled that tribal sovereign...more