Turtle Talk: A critical time for Indian law cases and Supreme Court

Tuesday, January 25, 2011  

"A couple years back, we wrote a post about the important of the Solicitor General’s views in Indian law cases (here). I followed that up with a short paper on how it appeared that the OSG’s influence on the Supreme Court — usually very prominent — seemed to wither when the OSG sided with tribal interests in Supreme Court litigation.

In this Term alone, at the invitation of the Supreme Court, the OSG has already filed two invitation briefs (Hogan v. Kaltag and Thunderhorse v. Pierce), and could file two more before the Term ends in the summer (Schwarzeneggar v. Rincon Band and Miccosukee Tribe v. Kraus-Anderson Construction). These invitation briefs are the result of Supreme Court orders inviting the views of the Solicitor General in cases where the U.S. is not a party (called a CVSG — a call for the views of the Solicitor General), but where the federal government may have a special interest or special expertise in a particular issue. The Court has asked for the Solicitor General’s views on an Indian law petition, on average, somewhat less than once per Term.

So the four recent CVSGs are interesting, to say the least."

Get the Story:
Commentary on Recent CVSGs in Supreme Court Indian Law Cases (Turtle Talk 1/25)

Supreme Court requests DOJ brief in tribal court jurisdiction case (1/24)