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Finding Circuit Court Case Law
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Last week, we took a look at resources for finding Supreme Court case law. This week, we're
focusing on the circuit courts. We'll use a story from last week, OK tribes
told to pay pull-tab taxes, (Tribal Law 4/6) to illustrate our process. The helpful
news review lists the two relevant cases: Chickasaw Nation v. US (No. 99-7042)
and Choctaw Nation v. US (No. 99-7072).
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The first step is to locate the proper court. The easiest way is to consult the
Federal Courts of Appeal
directory at FindLaw. FindLaw carries both opinions to cases and links to
the courts themselves. But rather than go to the individual court's homepage, use FindLaw.
The two cases relate to tribes in Oklahoma, so click on the link for the Tenth Circuit
Court of Appeals.
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Since the opinions of Chickasaw Nation v. US (No. 99-7042) and
Choctaw Nation v. US (No. 99-7072) were handed down this month, we
click on the link for the
April 2000 cases to find the two cases.
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FindLaw returns the list of all the cases from April 2000 in alphabetical order. All
that is left to do is find the two cases in the list and the process is complete!
The links to the full text are
http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?
court=10th&navby=case&no=997042
and http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?
court=10th&navby=case&no=997072
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When you don't know the full details of the case you want, FindLaw's search pages for the individual circuit courts
work pretty well because you can query the full text. The key again is to search only the correct circuit court.
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Although not a circuit court, there's one other important court to consider: the
US District Court for the District of Columbia, where all trust fund litigation occurs. FindLaw
doesn't carry opinions for this court, so your best bet is to use Indianz.Com's
Tribal Law Trust Fund directory or go to the
District Court Opinions
page and do a find in your browser (press Ctrl+F) for "Cobell." There is no search feature yet for the
court and only certain rulings are published online at this time.
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