United States v. Navajo Nation

Outcome: Reversed and remanded.

Description: I am one of the attorneys for the Tribal Supreme Court Project which submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the Navajo Nation concerning the future of the federal/tribal trust relationship in an era of self determination. My contribution is section 2(c) of the brief, which can be found at 2009 WL 164621. Holdings:The Supreme Court, Justice Scalia, held that: (1) the section of Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Act authorizing leases of tribal land for specifically enumerated purposes for terms of up to 25 years could not be invoked by tribe as independent source of law imposing duties on the Secretary of the Interior with respect to approval of amendments to mineral lease previously negotiated by tribe, for purpose of enabling court to exercise jurisdiction under the Indian Tucker Act over claims arising from the Secretary's failure to promptly approve royalty rate increase under lease; (2) tribe could not invoke section of the Navajo-Hopi Rehabilitation Act requiring the Secretary of the Interior to follow tribe's recommendations in administering “programs authorized by this subchapter”; (3) tribe could not invoke provision of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) that was enacted 13 years subsequent to mineral lease that was the subject of tribe's lawsuit; and (4) tribe had to identify specific rights-creating or duty-imposing statutory or regulatory prescriptions that imposed fiduciary or other duties on government, and could not rely on government's comprehensive control over coal on Indian land.