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Indigenous Environmental Network v. United States Department of State
Full text linkPipelines are an extremely efficient way to move large amounts of oil and gas across long distances. However, pipelines have become a lightning rod for environmentalists opposing the lines’ construction and the energy sector which considers the lines a must to achieve energy independence and security. Pipelines are massive projects often crossing interstate and international boundaries. As a result, they are subject to an extensive amount of government regulation with an accompanying assortment of legal challenges. Indigenous Environmental Network v. United States Department of State is the latest case in the Keystone XL pipeline saga, wherein the United States District Court for the District of Montana found several procedural insufficiencies with the Department’s actions in approving the pipeline
Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC
Full text linkIn Hoopa Valley Tribe v. FERC, the Hoopa Valley Tribe challenged the intentional and continual delay of state water quality certification review of water discharged from a series of dams on the Klamath River in California and Oregon. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the states of Oregon and California, and PacifiCorp, a hydroelectric operator, were implementing an administrative scheme designed to circumvent a one-year temporal requirement for review imposed on states by the Clean Water Act. This scheme allowed PacifiCorp to operate the series of dams for over a decade without proper state water quality certification. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held in favor of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and vacated FERC’s ruling while also holding that Oregon and California had waived their Section 401 water quality certification authority
From Foundational Law to Limiting Principles in Federal Indian Law
Full text linkFederal Indian law has been exceptional in the sense of being distinctively compared to other areas of American Public Law. This Article analyzes areas of federal Indian Law where the application of exceptionalism and foundational principles is especially likely to motive the Supreme Court of the United States to search for limiting principles. The Article focuses on tribal sovereign immunity cases, tribal-state conflicts involving off-reservation treaty rights, and state taxing power within Indian reservations
\u27Race, Racism, and American Law \u27: A Seminar From The Indigenous, Black, And Immigrant Legal Perspectives
Full text linkThe events of fall 2016 exploded the myth of a post-racial America that some believed had been ushered in by Barack Obama’s presidency.1With the U.S. presidential campaign in full swing, soon-to-be President Donald Trump disparaged Muslims as terrorists, Mexicans as rapists and murderers, and African Americans as poor.2 Trump’s racist demagoguery came amidst the momentum of the Black Lives Matter,Standing Rock, and Dreamer movements—mass mobilizations that sought to end the police killings of Black people, protect Native American treaty rights, and grant immigrant minors legal status.3 Once again, the racial divide that has defined this nation since its inception 2019] RACE,RACISM,ANDAMERICANLAW 3reemerged in the national discourse with an intensity that exposed the fallacy of post-racialism.4The national anger, confusion, and vulnerability sown by that fall’s campaign reflected and reverberated in our community in Montana. They fractured our law school, our university, our state, and our city along lines of difference, not the least of which was racial.5 We would not know until November that Trump would be elected president. We would not know until after his inauguration that he would harden and intensify his racist agenda.6 But we sensed a new era had dawned, and therefore, we and our students needed to understand the undercurrents and urgencies of the moment. In response, we sought to reaffirm an anti-racist agenda and harness the ferment by finding common ground in the legal treatments of Native Americans, African Americans, and immigrants. That is how our seminar, “Race, Racism, and American Law from the Native American, African American, and Immigrant Legal Perspectives,” came to be
Loyalties and Royalties: The Osage Nation’s Energy Sovereignty Plan and Wind Farm Opposition
Full text linkThe Interaction of U.S. Public Lands, Water, and State Sovereignty in the West: A Reassessment and Celebration
Full text linkRemarks at the Dedication of Walter Lyndon Pope Memorial Library, University of Montana Law School June 9, 1979
Full text linkSturgeon v. Frost
Full text linkAfter two trips to the United States Supreme Court, an Alaskan moose hunter secured motorized access to his hunting ground while establishing Alaska as the exception, rather than the rule, regarding federal land management. In a much-anticipated holding, the Court determined that the surface waters of the Nation River within the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve qualify as “private” land and therefore fall beyond the control of the National Park Service. The decision stripped the Park Service of normal regulatory authority over navigable waters within Alaska’s national parks, prompting a concurrence urging Congress to clarify resulting ambiguities
United States v. Gillette: A Tiny Prairie Casenote Opening a Window on the Enveloping Fog Obscuring the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968
Full text linkUnited States v. Gillette is one of the first reported cases on the new post-United States v. Bryant road. As of yet, there is no reliable (legal) GPS to point the way. This tiny prairie casenote is not meant to focus on the answers, but rather clarify the questions and to widen the discussion as the journey continues