March/April

Full schedule of events slated for the 36th Annual Federal Bar Association's Indian Law Conference: "Best Practices & Continuing Challenges in Federal Indian Law."

The future of federal Indian law need not be left to happenstance. It can be shaped through the conscious efforts of its practitioners. A constellation of factors are aligned to make tribal self-determination the enduring goal of the law, but...

The solicitor general, sometimes referred to as the “tenth justice,” is the person that has the most influence with the Supreme Court but is not a sitting justice.

In 1898, the United States became an overseas empire. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the Spanish-American War, the former Spanish territories of Guam and the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean and Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean came under the American flag. Simultaneously, the Republic of Hawai‘i, by way of treaty, relinquished its sovereignty in exchange for territorial status by virtue of what is commonly known as the Newlands Resolution.

The Tribal Law and Order Act is a new, broad, and comprehensive legislative package that attempts to improve the criminal justice system in Indian country. Whether, in the eyes of our nation’s indigenous people, the act actually fulfills its promise remains to be seen.

Federal officials often speak publicly about respect for their fiduciary relationship with Indians. However, when called to account for failing to fulfill those trust duties, the executive branch often seeks to avoid responsibility.