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The Sovereignty Problem in Federal Indian Law

Abstract There is a sovereignty problem in federal Indian law—namely, that the federal government’s sovereign defenses prevent tribal nations and individual Indian people from realizing justice in the courts. Often, compelling tribal and Indian claims go nowhere as the judiciary defers to the interests of the United States, even where Congress has expressly stated its support for tribal interests...

Homelands Not Graveyards

Abstract Within the last five years, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up several transformative cases affecting Native nations and federal Indian law jurisprudence. The Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. Navajo Nation is no different. This Article examines that decision and situates it within that legal history as well as the realities of present-day water resource availability. While recent...

Tribal Law Innovations in Native Governance

Abstract This Article examines how tribal law has become a critical tool in advancing Native self- determination and good governance across Indian country. I analyze three key areas of innovation: the incorporation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into tribal legal systems, the rapid expansion of tribal laws protecting cultural property, and the implementation...

"The Seed is the Law": Creating New Governance Frameworks for Indigenous Heirloom Seeds and Traditional Knowledge

Abstract The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held a diplomatic conference in May 2024 where participants adopted a historic new treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge. The treaty is intended to improve the patent system by preventing erroneous patents that are derived from genetic resources and associated knowledge...

Native Reproductive Self-Determination

Abstract Like the overall well-being of Indigenous peoples, Native reproductive health has been deeply impacted by the direct and collateral consequences of settler colonialism. Today, Natives experience some of the most dire reproductive health disparities. Unlike other health care systems, however, Native health care is sui generis. The federal government has treaty, trust, and statutory...

Indigenous Peoples in International (Treaty) Diplomacy

Abstract International diplomacy has traditionally been considered the exclusive prerogative of states, who engage with each other on matters of peace, conflict, and trade with an eye to national interests and global wellbeing. This is one of a series of works considering “Indigenous Diplomacy”—a practice in which Indigenous Peoples engage with states, as well as other Indigenous Peoples, groups...

Landback as Federal Policy

Abstract Demands for the return of land to tribal nations have become much louder and more compelling in recent years. While “landback” has been part of federal policy for nearly a century, lawmakers and presidents from both parties have embraced landback initiatives more firmly in the last half century. But the quantity of lands returned is almost insignificant in comparison to the vast lands...

How Does an Immigrant Become an “American”? Exclusion and Assimilation in U.S. Naturalization Law

Ugly fears of unassimilated immigrants have persisted throughout American history, influencing immigration law for centuries. From Chinese exclusion in the late 1800s, to President Trump’s Muslim ban in 2017, to his continued emphasis on securing our borders today, American history is rich with examples of exclusionary immigration policies. Though many of these laws impose obstacles to entering...

Major Questions in the Plenary Power Domain

Immigration law has been described as a field of constitutional oddity. Under the plenary power doctrine, courts have deferred to government decisions on immigration policy that would plainly violate constitutional rights outside of the immigration context. Courts have wielded the plenary power doctrine as a tool of systemic racism, using it to uphold racially discriminatory immigration policies...

Privacy and the Impossibility of Borders

This Article argues that a meaningful conception of privacy renders borders illegitimate. For those present in a nation state without legal authorization, pursuit of their basic rights carries the real risk that identifying information collected will expose them to immigration enforcement. Such a phenomenon is becoming more real considering an expanding border enforcement apparatus that relies on...

Relational River: Arizona v. Navajo Nation & the Colorado

It is not every day the U.S. Supreme Court adjudicates a case about the water needs and rights of one of the Colorado River Basin’s thirty tribal nations and the trust relationship shared by that sovereign with the United States. Yet just that happened in Arizona v. Navajo Nation in June 2023. As explored in this Article, the Colorado is a relational river relied upon by roughly forty million...

A New Approach to Disability, “Mental Incapacity,” and the Right to Vote: Lessons from Abroad

The vast majority of U.S. states and many countries have laws disenfranchising those lacking “mental capacity.” Such laws discriminate against people with mental and intellectual disabilities. Based on international developments like the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, some countries, including Japan and Peru, have begun questioning the need for incompetence...

Auxiliary Police in Schools

Alternative school police initiatives have recently received significant scholarly and policy attention. From their implementation throughout several school districts nationwide, many scholars, advocates, and policymakers have grappled with two key questions: What replacement for school police officers could both keep classrooms safe and does not result in profiling aimed at Black students? To...