Turtle Talk: Supreme Court report card in Indian law cases

Tuesday, April 19, 2011  

Turtle Talk has posted an Indian law report card for the U.S. Supreme Court.

The report card covers every Indian law and Indian law-related case since 1986, when the late William Rehnquist became the chief justice. It starts with Iowa Mutual v. Laplante, a tribal court jurisdiction case from 1986, and ends with US v. Navajo Nation, a trust case from 2009.

According to the review, Thurgood Marshall sided with tribal interests in 10 out of the 13 Indian law cases in which he participated. That's the best record, followed by William Brennan (8 out of 11) and Harry Blackmun (13 out of 20).

The three with the worst records are still siting on the court: Justice Clarence Thomas (5 out of 35), Chief Justice John Roberts (0 out of 5) and Justice Samuel Alito (0 out of 4).

Get the Story:
U.S. Supreme Court Justices’ Indian Law Report Card (Turtle Talk 4/18)

Related Stories:
Turtle Talk: More on Indian law cases and Supreme Court (4/14)
Turtle Talk: Reviewing Indian law cases at the Supreme Court (4/12)