{"id":4062,"date":"2020-11-03T14:14:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T20:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=4062"},"modified":"2020-11-05T17:37:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T23:37:42","slug":"covid-19-funding-dispute-heads-to-trumps-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2020\/11\/03\/covid-19-funding-dispute-heads-to-trumps-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 funding dispute heads to Trump’s Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Red Lake Nation: Chairman Seki’s Update – November 2, 2020<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
COVID-19 funding dispute heads to Trump’s Supreme Court<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, November 3, 2020<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWith the nation’s highest court stacked with even more conservative justices, tribes are once again paying close attention to a COVID-19<\/a> funding dispute they thought was over.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nOn September 25, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a> barred the Trump administration from distributing shares of an $8 billion coronavirus relief fund to Alaska Native corporations. The unanimous decision was a victory for tribal governments<\/a>, whose leaders viewed the case as a test of the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cFederally-recognized tribes stood strong to oppose the actions of the Department of the Treasury<\/a> in their attempt to undermine the first citizens of this country, but our voices were heard and Indigenous people prevailed,\u201d said President Jonathan Nez<\/a> of the Navajo Nation<\/a>, one of the tribes involved in the litigation.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBut with tribes facing a deadline to spend their shares of the COVID-19 relief fund by the end of the year, the matter is far from resolved. As Nez and advocates feared, the Alaska Native corporate entities and the Trump administration are asking the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> to overturn the D.C. Circuit’s ruling.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cIf left to stand, the lower court\u2019s decision would prove devastating for our rural communities, who, in the onset of winter in Alaska, are facing extreme difficulties combating the virus,\u201d the ANCSA Regional Association<\/a> and Alaska Native Village Corporation Association<\/a> said in an October 22 statement explaining why they are appealing to the nation’s highest court<\/a>.\r\n

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Alaska Native corporations want the nation’s highest court to rule on disputed shares of $8 billion in #COVID19 relief. Statement from the ANCSA Regional Association & the Alaska Native Village Corporation Association. #CARESAct #SupremeCourt #Coronavirus https:\/\/t.co\/GNX7tCnReT<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/p>\r\nOther than filing a written petition on behalf of the Department of the Treasury<\/a>, the Trump administration hasn’t offered a public reason for its appeal. But tribal leaders feel the Supreme Court is already stacked against them, a situation that could worsen since the president himself has picked three out of the nine justices.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cHopefully, Trump’s Supreme Court doesn’t cave into his wishes,\u201d Chairman Darrell G. Seki, Sr. of the Red Lake Nation<\/a> said in a video update<\/a> on Monday in which he discussed the COVID-19 case.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nTrump’s Supreme Court now includes Amy Coney Barrett<\/a>, who was sworn into office<\/a> last Tuesday. In a process that took just two weeks, Republicans rushed her nomination<\/a> through the U.S. Senate<\/a>, bringing the number of conservative-leaning justices to six, out of nine.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nLike most of her colleagues, Barrett lacks direct experience in Indian law. In her three years as a judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a>, she never wrote a decision affecting tribes and their sovereign interests, leaving her views open to interpretation.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBut with the COVID-19 petition before the Supreme Court, Barrett is being asked to weigh in on a matter that the Native corporations in Alaska are presenting as a matter of life and death.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cBecause of the tribal enrollment structure in Alaska, the decision also means that tens of thousands of Alaska Natives will not receive any federal emergency assistance at all,\u201d the ANCSA Regional Association and Alaska Native Village Corporation Association said in highlighting a portion of the D.C. Circuit’s ruling which warned that some Native people might fall through the cracks<\/a> as the coronavirus continues to affect the first Americans at disproportionate rates.\r\n

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On Tuesday, October 27, 2020, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., administered the Judicial Oath to The Honorable Amy Coney Barrett in a private ceremony attended by the Justices of the Supreme Court and Judge Barrett’s husband, Jesse M. Barrett. The oath was administered in the East Conference Room at the Supreme Court Building. Photo by Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Alaska Native corporations filed their petition with the Supreme Court on October 21.\r\nThe entities are being represented by Paul Clement<\/a>, a prominent attorney who served as a top legal official during the Republican George W. Bush presidential administration.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Department of Justice<\/a>, on behalf of Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin<\/a>, filed its appeal on October 26. The petition argues for the Alaska Native corporations, also known as ANCs, to be treated the same as tribal governments in order to receive shares of the $8 billion coronavirus relief fund.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThe decision below, if allowed to stand, will exclude ANCs from receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in coronavirus relief funds that Congress directed the Secretary of the Treasury to reserve for Indian tribes,\u201d the brief reads. \u201cThose funds are intended to offset to some extent the devastating and unexpected financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Indian tribal institutions, including ANCs.\u201d\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThrough the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act<\/a>, also known as the CARES Act<\/a>, Congress authorized $150 billion in COVID-19 relief for tribal, state and local governments. Of the total amount, $8 billion was designated for tribes but Chairman Seki of the Red Lake Nation said the Trump administration wasn’t on board.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cThe Trump administration objected to funds being set aside for tribes,\u201d Seki said in his video on Monday. \r\n

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