Officials of the Cherokee Nation, but not the tribe itself, can be sued, according to a decision released yesterday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Overturning, in part, a district court ruling, the court said that the Cherokee Nation could not be joined as an indispensable party in a suit challenging the Cherokees’ right to disenfranchise the descendents of their former slaves.
However, the appeals court said, Cherokee Nation officials could be sued for alleged constitutional and treaty violations, and a prospective request for injunctive relief. “… Officers of the Cherokee Nation cannot seek shelter in the tribe’s sovereign immunity,” the court wrote in a unanimous opinion. The opinion in Vann v. Kempthorne is available here.
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