Native American

  • January 13, 2025

    Judge Says California Tribe Can't Block Casino Land Decision

    A California tribe can't block the Interior Department from taking 65 acres into trust for a fellow state tribe's proposed casino project, a federal district judge said, arguing that it has not satisfied the burden to prove an immediate threat of irreparable harm.

  • January 13, 2025

    Interior Department Approves Ore. Tribal Casino Amid Lawsuit

    The U.S. Department of the Interior gave its final approval to Oregon's first off-reservation casino amid litigation that looked to block the project, ending a 13-year application process for the Coquille Indian Tribe.

  • January 13, 2025

    Tax-Exempt Regs Should Cover Trust Payments, Tribes Say

    Five tribal leaders told the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday that trust payments distributed to members, including those issued to minors and special-needs individuals, should be included among the tribal welfare benefits that recent proposed rules would exempt from federal income taxes.

  • January 13, 2025

    Dems Seek Postponement Of Interior Secretary Hearing

    Democrats on the U.S. Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Monday asked for the nomination hearing for secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior to be delayed, claiming they haven't received the requisite documents.

  • January 13, 2025

    Supreme Court Won't Hear ND Native Voting Rights Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court won't hear a challenge by two local North Dakota Republican Party officials to a lower court's ruling that said two of the state's new House subdistricts created to prevent Native American voter dilution were legally drawn under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

  • January 13, 2025

    Justices Reject Utah's Effort To Wrest Land From Feds

    The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Utah's claims that the federal government is stifling economic activity in the state by unconstitutionally hoarding and profiting from public lands.

  • January 10, 2025

    DeSantis Vows More Money, Control Over Everglades Projects

    Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged to recommend $805 million of the state budget for continuing efforts in Everglades restoration and promised to take more control over water management, saying he hopes to work with the incoming Trump administration to expedite projects in order to reduce time and taxpayer expense.

  • January 10, 2025

    FWS Rejects Bids To Strip Protections From Grizzly Bears

    The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has rejected petitions from Montana and Wyoming to strip federal Endangered Species Act protections of grizzly bears in the Northern Rocky Mountains, saying it will instead look to shrink the geographic areas where they are protected.

  • January 10, 2025

    Kiewit's Seattle Marine Yard Runoff Violates CWA, Suit Says

    Kiewit Corp. is the target of a citizen Clean Water Act suit accusing the construction company of violating environmental permits by failing to prevent polluted stormwater from its Seattle marine yard from running into a river and bay.

  • January 10, 2025

    Minn. Tribal Casino Execs Look To Nix Class III Gaming Fight

    Executives of two Minnesota tribal casinos are urging a federal district court to toss a challenge by a commercial casino and horse racetrack operator that claims they're illegally fighting to dominate the state's gambling industry through Class III gaming, arguing that a recent Ninth Circuit decision weighs in their favor.

  • January 09, 2025

    Tribe's Atty Looks To Ax Remaining Claims In $14.6M Suit

    An attorney who has represented the Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma as general counsel has asked a federal judge in a $14.6 million racketeering and breach of contract dispute against a computer management company to toss the case or pause it pending a circuit court appeal.

  • January 09, 2025

    ND Voting Laws May Be Undone In 8th Circ., Justices Told

    Two local North Dakota Republican Party officials are urging the Supreme Court to take up their bid to reverse a lower court's ruling over newly created subdistricts for Native American voters, arguing that the "highly unusual" procedural posture of similar suits in the Eighth Circuit are likely to be overturned.

  • January 09, 2025

    Airlines Say 9th Circ. Should Mull Seattle Airport Pollution Suit

    Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines have told a Washington federal court that the Ninth Circuit should immediately consider the jurisdictional and preemption issues raised in a proposed class action from property owners and residents over alleged flight-path pollution near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

  • January 09, 2025

    Feds Award Millions To Tribes For Safe Water, Homes, Climate

    With a week left in its term, the Biden administration has doled out millions to states and tribal communities throughout the country to boost efforts toward more reliable water sources, to take on housing health and safety hazards and to continue the ongoing battle against climate change.

  • January 08, 2025

    DOI's Arctic Refuge Oil Lease Sale Yields No Bidders

    The U.S. Department of the Interior reported Wednesday that it has received no bids from companies to drill for oil and gas in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

  • January 08, 2025

    Ariz. Tribe Sues Social Media Giants Over Youth Mental Health

    An Apache tribe has hit all the social media giants with a suit in California federal court claiming the companies' platforms are designed to addict young people but have a particularly bad effect on Native American youth, who already face a high risk of depression, addiction and suicide.

  • January 08, 2025

    Calif. Tribe Has Standing To Block Casino Project, Court Told

    A California tribe says it has constitutional standing to block the Interior Department from taking land into trust for a proposed casino project on its historic homelands, arguing that it suffered actual and concrete harm when the agency determined that no historic resources would be affected by the endeavor.

  • January 08, 2025

    EPA, Navajo To Remove 65 Acres Of Waste From Reservation

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Navajo Nation have finalized a plan to provide a complete cleanup of one of the largest and most high-risk uranium mine sites on the tribe's reservation, the federal agency said.

  • January 08, 2025

    Dems Cry Foul On Trump Nominees' Hearings Process

    Top Democrats claimed Wednesday that Republicans are rushing to hold confirmation hearings for at least two of President-elect Donald Trump's nominees without the full paperwork.

  • January 07, 2025

    Bill To Protect Wounded Knee Massacre Site Reintroduced

    A federal bill seeking to preserve a section of land at Wounded Knee Creek, where about 150 Lakota Indians were killed by the U.S. Army more than a century ago, has been reintroduced to the U.S. House for consideration during the Trump administration.

  • January 07, 2025

    Navajo Nation Sues Feds Over Judicial Funding, Again

    The Navajo Nation alleges in a pair of lawsuits in D.C. federal court that the U.S. Department of the Interior wrongly rejected the tribe's funding proposals for its judicial branch, kicking off a new chapter in a long-running legal saga over yearly funding for the federally recognized tribe.

  • January 07, 2025

    Biden Designates Two New National Monuments In California

    President Joe Biden on Tuesday designated two sites in California as national monuments amid years of calls from Native American tribes and state and federal lawmakers, in turn protecting 848,000 acres from development.

  • January 07, 2025

    Osage Nation Asks Court To Confirm Reservation Boundaries

    The Osage Nation has urged an Oklahoma federal court to acknowledge its reservation's continued existence, arguing that a conclusion the Tenth Circuit reached 15 years ago saying the tribe's boundaries were disestablished was based entirely on extratextual factors.

  • January 06, 2025

    Biden Signs DC Football Stadium Bill Into Law

    President Joe Biden on Monday gave Washington, D.C., government control over a site that could become home to a new stadium for the NFL's Commanders.

  • January 06, 2025

    Feds Hit Georgia Developer With Suit Over Native Artifacts

    The United States has accused a Georgia developer of violating its Clean Water Act permit by illegally filling in wetlands, so it could build residences on a floodplain even though it knew about the presence of protected archaeological sites and cultural objects on the property.

Expert Analysis

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • Navigating The Bankruptcy Terrain After Purdue Pharma

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma is having a significant impact on bankruptcies, with recent cases addressing nonconsensual third-party releases and opt-out mechanisms, and highlighting strategies practitioners can employ to avoid running afoul of the decision, say Brett Axelrod and Agostino Zammiello at Fox Rothschild.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

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