Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Department of the Interior, et al. v. Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 23-35543, 23-35544 · judgment August 22, 2025
(petition-stage, structural)
About 15.3× the 4.1% base rate. The model weights this up for a federal-government petitioner, counsel who has won certiorari before, and a Ninth Circuit decision below.
Question presented
With narrow exceptions that are inapplicable here, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), 43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq., authorizes the sale or exchange of “any land and interest in land owned by the United States within the several States and administered by the Secretary of the Interior through the Bureau of Land Management, without regard to how the United States acquired ownership,” 43 U.S.C. 1702(e); see 43 U.S.C. 1713(a), 1716(a). The question presented is as follows: Whether the United States may invoke FLPMA to dispose of land that the government previously acquired from an Indian tribe, when the statute that approved the land’s earlier purchase stated that the land “shall be opened to settlement by the proclamation of the President, and shall be subject to disposal under the homestead, town-site, stone and timber, and mining laws of the United States only.” Act of June 6, 1900, ch. 813, § 5, 31 Stat. 676.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
D. John Sauer
Solicitor General
For respondent
Neal Kumar Katyal
Milbank LLP
Proceedings
- Aug 20 2026Brief amici curiae of The National Association of Manufacturers, et al. filed. VIDED.
- Aug 20 2026Brief amici curiae of Idaho Governor Brad Little, et al. filed. VIDED.
- Aug 20 2026Brief amicus curiae of National Mining Association filed. VIDED.
- Aug 20 2026Brief amicus curiae of Mountain States Legal Foundation filed. VIDED.
- Aug 20 2026Brief amicus curiae of Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America filed. VIDED.
- Aug 14 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including September 21, 2026.
- Aug 13 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from August 20, 2026 to September 21, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Aug 12 2026Motion of Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation, et al. for an extension of time not accepted for filing. (August 13, 2026)
- Jul 20 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 20, 2026)