September 10, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court this year has handed down rulings with huge price tags attached — from millions in healthcare reimbursement funding required for tribes to lending Florida a win that will garner it a new revenue stream — that are expected to have large implications for Native American sovereignty. Here, Law360 takes a look at some of the biggest decisions in Native American law from the first half of 2024.
August 22, 2024
Members of an Apache nonprofit fighting to save an Indigenous worship site from destruction are making stops to visit other tribes throughout the country for prayers and support as they deliver a petition to the Supreme Court that seeks to undo a Ninth Circuit ruling and block a mining project.
May 14, 2024
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday rejected a bid by an Apache nonprofit for a full judge en banc rehearing in an effort to block a copper mining company from destroying an Indigenous religious site in central Arizona known as Oak Flat, setting up the case for a U.S. Supreme Court appeal.
April 26, 2024
At least 100 religious and nonprofit groups, law scholars, Native American coalitions and tribes are urging the Ninth Circuit to consider a full panel en banc hearing on a challenge to block a copper mining company from destroying a sacred Indigenous religious site in central Arizona.
April 16, 2024
An Apache nonprofit is asking the Ninth Circuit's entire 29-judge panel to review its lawsuit that seeks to block a copper mining company from destroying a sacred Indigenous religious site, arguing that an en banc hearing is warranted given the appellate court's latest split decision on the land transfer.
April 08, 2024
The San Carlos Apache Tribe is urging a United Nations committee to ask the United States to withhold any permissions that would allow Resolution Copper Co. to proceed with any activity on a plot of land known as Oak Flat, arguing that a Ninth Circuit ruling allowing the land transfer merits urgent intervention to prevent further human rights violations on the sacred site.
March 04, 2024
A split Ninth Circuit ruling that a sacred tribal site in Arizona's Tonto National Forest can be transferred to a copper mining company is certain to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, which contends that the decision effectively bulldozes a long-held worship site and ultimately denies the tribe's freedom of religious expression, despite the panel's skepticism of that claim.
January 01, 2024
Disputes over administrative healthcare costs for tribes that could cost the federal government billions and Voting Rights Act cases that have the potential to undo rulings in several states all gained speed in 2023 with legal experts predicting major decisions out of the appellate courts in the new year.
June 27, 2023
Nonprofit advocacy group Apache Stronghold told a full Ninth Circuit panel that a mining company waited too long to weigh in on its appeal to stop a land transfer the group says would wipe out an Arizona site Native Americans consider sacred to make way for North America's biggest copper mine.
March 21, 2023
The Ninth Circuit wrestled on Tuesday with the extent of federal protections for religious liberty as it revisited a controversial land exchange in Arizona at the heart of plans to build North America's largest copper mine, a project that Indigenous activists say would raze a sacred site.