UA News: Arlinda Locklear on Indian law and 'judicial activism'

Thursday, September 22, 2011  

"The first American Indian woman to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court will deliver this fall’s Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community. Arlinda Locklear challenged the State of South Dakota on a sovereignty issue in the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case, Solem v. Bartlett. She will talk about “the development of fundamental principles as applied in tribal land claims and the dramatic changes we're facing,” in a lecture titled “Tribal Land Claims: A Generation of Federal Indian Law on the Edge” at 7 p.m. Oct. 6 at the Heard Museum, 2301 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix.

For 35 years, Locklear, now a Washington, D.C., attorney has represented tribes throughout the U.S., in federal and state courts, on treaty claims to water and land, taxation disputes with states and local authorities, reservation boundary issues, and federal recognition of tribes.

“We are accustomed to the notion that tribal communities are protected under federal law in the permanent and peaceable possession of their lands. While white contact left tribal communities with precious little, we were left with this invaluable barrier against the dominant society,” said Locklear. Now, we may be witnessing the unraveling of this federal protection – not from an act of Congress or the repudiation of treaties, but through judicial activism.”"

Get the Story:
Locklear to speak on ‘judicial activism’ in Indian law (University of Arizona News 9/21)