Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch addresses the Navajo Nation Council. Photo: Navajo Nation Council
For the first time, formal legal opinions of the Navajo Nation are available online and in one place. Just a few months ago, the website for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice promised that opinions were "Coming soon!" Now anyone can access them thanks to a new initiative by Attorney General Ethel Branch. "When I became Attorney General, members of the Navajo Nation Council encouraged me to provide greater access to the Attorney General's opinions," Branch said in a press release on Tuesday. "With the hire of our new staff member, Brandon Begay, who comes to us with tremendous information technology expertise, we have gained the capacity to make the Attorney General's opinions available online." The opinions date to June 1998, when the first one was authored by then-attorney general Herb Yazzie. Since then, 17 more have been issued, including three from Branch, who joined the tribal government in July 2015 as an appointee of President Russell Begaye. "It is so critical that we have clarity in our laws," Branch said. "Access to Attorney General opinions will provide that clarity on questions of law," she added.
Join the Conversation
