Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Northern Arapaho Tribe, et al. v. Wyoming, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, No. 14-9512, 14-9514 · judgment November 7, 2017
Before the decision, about 2.4× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel with five or more prior petitions here, a circuit split argued in the petition, and a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition).
Question presented
This Court has instructed that only Congress may diminish the boundaries of an Indian reservation, and only when its intent is clear and plain. Applying that standard, this Court has found statutes to effect diminishment only in three circumstances: (1) the text provides for a guaranteed sum-certain payment to the tribe in exchange for reservation land: (2) the statute includes a provision restoring reservation land to the public domain; or (3) the negotiations and legislative history surrounding the statute unequivocally support diminishment. In the decision below, a divided Tenth Circuit panel blazed a fourth path that undervalues sovereignty interests and gives short shrift to this Court’s most recent decision on the question. Based primarily on language of cession, unaccompanied by any sum-certain or public-domain language or unequivocal legislative history, the court of appeals concluded that a 1905 Act of Congress diminished the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming—home to two Indian tribes—to one-third its size. In reaching that result, the Tenth Circuit overruled two federal agencies that concluded that the 1905 Act did not diminish the Reservation, split from the Eighth Circuit on virtually identical statutory text, and, in the dissenting judge’s view, “create[d] a new low-water mark in diminishment jurisprudence.” The question presented is: Whether Congress evinced a clear and plain intent in the 1905 Act to diminish the Wind River Reservation by nearly two-thirds simply by using language of cession.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Paul D. Clement
Clement & Murphy, PLLC
For respondent
Jodi Ann Darrough
Fremont County Attorney's Office
Proceedings
- Jun 25 2018Petition DENIED. Justice Gorsuch took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.
- Jun 05 2018DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/21/2018.
- Jun 04 2018Reply of petitioner Northern Arapaho Tribe filed.
- May 18 2018Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed. VIDED.
- May 18 2018Brief of respondent State of Wyoming in opposition filed. VIDED.
- May 18 2018Brief of respondent Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation in opposition filed. VIDED.
- Apr 20 2018Brief of intervenors respondents Fremont County, Wyoming, and City of Riverton, Wyoming in opposition filed. VIDED
- Apr 18 2018Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including May 18, 2018, for all respondents.
- Apr 17 2018Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 23, 2018 to May 18, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
- Mar 23 2018Brief amicus curiae of The National Congress of American Indians filed. VIDED.
- Mar 22 2018Brief amici curiae of Law Professors filed. VIDED.
- Mar 16 2018Blanket Consent filed by Respondents, Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, et al. VIDED.
- Mar 14 2018Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Northern Arapaho Tribe.
- Mar 06 2018Motions to extend the time to file responses are granted and the time is extended to and including April 23, 2018, for all respondents.
- Mar 02 2018Blanket Consent filed by Respondent, State of Wyoming.
- Mar 01 2018Motion to extend the time to file a response from March 26, 2018 to April 23, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
- Mar 01 2018Motion to extend the time to file a response from March 26, 2018 to April 23, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
- Feb 16 2018Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 26, 2018)
- Jan 17 2018Application (17A751) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from February 5, 2018 to March 7, 2018, submitted to Justice Sotomayor.
- Jan 17 2018Application (17A751) granted by Justice Sotomayor extending the time to file until March 7, 2018.