Judge who wrote Mille Lacks treaty decision dies at 80

Tuesday, May 1, 2007  

Donald P. Lay, the former chief judge of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, died in Minnesota on Sunday. He was 80.

Lay wrote the majority opinion in Mille Lacs Band v. Minnesota. The decision upheld the off-reservation treaty rights of the Ojibwe bands under an 1837 treaty.

The case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. By a 5-4 vote in March 1999, the judge upheld Lay's ruling.

Get the Story:
Donald Lay, chief Appeals Court judge and champion of individual civil rights (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 5/1)
pwlat

Mille Lacs Band v. Minnesota:
Syllabus | Opinion [O'Connor] | Dissent [Rehnquist] | Dissent [Thomas]

$rl Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe - http://www.millelacsojibwe.org