Court to Decide if Racial Slurs Warrant Dismissal

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether an assault case should have been dismissed because jurors made racially inflammatory comments about the defendant, who is a member of Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and resident of the Ute White Mesa Reservation. The man was found guilty last year of assaulting a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer.
On appeal a federal judge dismissed the case because, he said, statements made by two jurors during the deliberation phase of the case indicated they had "failed to honestly answer a material question during 'voir dire."

During deliberations, a juror stated in an affidavit, the jury foreman said "that he used to live on, or maybe he lived by an Indian reservation. He then stated 'when Indians get alcohol, they all get drunk' and then added when they do get drunk, they get wild or violent or something to that effect." In another statement given to a defense investigator, a juror said that "at least two other jurors agreed with the foreman about Indians and drinking." Read more about it here.

Court Won't Rehear Casino Land-Into-Trust Case

The D.C. U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday refused to rehear an appeal for a rejected challenge of a land-into-trust casino case. Score 1 for Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians -- a.k.a. the Gun Lake Band. Read about it here.

Cherokee Officials Can be Sued, Court Says

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.