President Barack Obama nominated two people to sit on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears a significant number of Indian law cases.

Obama nominated Caitlin J. Halligan, the general counsel of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and Sri Srinivasan, the principal deputy solicitor general at the Department of Justice.

If confirmed, both will sit on a court that recently issued decisions on the Cobell trust fund settlement, the Western Shoshone trust fund and in a nuclear waste case involving the Prairie Island Indian Community.

The DC Circuit was also the source of Salazar v. Patchak, a gaming land case that recently went before the U.S. Supreme Court. Srinivasan was not at DOJ when the litigation was in the lower courts.

Get the Story:
Press Release: President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (The White House 6/11)
Obama Nominates Two to Appeals Court (The New York Times 6/11)