Is there a Native American qualified for the Supreme Court?

[seemslikeadream]

I believe they have been very patient, I mean having your land stolen should count for something

[ismnotwasm]

1. Qualified?

I'm sure there is. Has a snowball's chance in hell? No.

[Oregone]

2. Im sure there are a lot of people "qualified"

That being said, the Supreme Court isn't about waiting in line. Its about sound judicial review. Its a non-partisan, non-political position (or should be at least).

[seemslikeadream]

5. They shouldn't be waiting in line for something that was stolen from them

Would you wait in a line for 400 years?

[Oregone]

7. Uh, yeah, but Im not sure why that has anything to do with the Supreme Court

[seemslikeadream]

18. I kinda understand cause my greatgrandma's land was stolen from her

I mean heaven forbid the Irish would be allowed to rule their own country

[Oregone]

19. If Supreme Court appointments become about doing what is "right"

rather than appointing based upon one's ability and history of judicial review, then the court will become a partisan mockery (its bad enough as is).

Im not doubting that some First Nation members may be as "qualified" as anyone else. Im just not entirely sure that their ethnicity should be taken into account, period. Its just contradictory to the nature of the post.

[seemslikeadream]

21. become a partisan mockery ?

Did you forget Bush v Gore?

[Oregone]

22. As I said, its bad enough as it

The Supreme Court needs to be about judicial review, period.

[seemslikeadream]

23. Yes that would be great and maybe they can take up getting the Native Americans

money owed to them

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/10/AR2008061002739.html

Elouise Cobell, a leader of the Blackfeet tribe in northwest Montana, filed the class-action lawsuit in 1996, seeking to force the Interior Department to account for billions of dollars in royalties from Indian lands held in trust by the government. The origins of the suit date back to 1887, when the government divided up millions of acres of Indian reservation land, parceled it out to individual Native Americans, but put the lots into trusts controlled by the Interior department.

On behalf of the Native Americans, the government then leased the land to oil, gas and other companies. Lawyers for the Native Americans allege that the government should have paid the Native Americans billions of dollars over the years.

The government has run into a lot of trouble trying to account for the money.

Many records are missing. Some are kept in different forms. Others were destroyed. And Congress did not allocate the money necessary -- estimated to be in the billions of dollars -- to perform an audit that might ultimately determine what happened to the funds.

In his 165-page January opinion, Robertson noted that it would be nearly impossible to figure out the difference between what the government collected from the leases and what it then paid out to the Native Americans over the years.

[seemslikeadream]

26. Dawes Act of 1887

The Dawes Act

The Dawes Act, or General Allotment Act of 1887, was passed by the U.S. Congress to give specific sections of land to individual Native Americans, replacing the group tribal holdings of the past.

Sponsored by U.S. Senator H. L. Dawes, the act tried to change Indian culture. Some people argue the act tried to get Native Americans to be "more white" by giving them land, different names, and a chance to be self-sufficient.

Allotments could be sold after 25 years, and “surplus” land not allotted was opened to settlers.

By the early 1900s, most of the land that was owned by tribes was in white hands.

The act was repealed during the New Deal in 1934, and according to one study, two-thirds of the Indian population was "either completely landless or did not own enough land to make a subsistence living."

[Oregone]

29. Isn't that tidbit irrelevant to the discussion of if ethnicity should be a "qualification" or even,

a "consideration" for a court involved with judicial review?


A history of being wronged doesn't make someone the right person for the job.

[seemslikeadream]

30. single largest and longest-lasting financial scandal in history involving the federal government of

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/free/biatrustfund.html

[Oregone]

31. So, fucking, what?

Do you know what the Supreme Court is? Do you know why this is all irrelevant?

[seemslikeadream]

33. Do you know what the Supreme Court is? JUSTICE

I would think

[Oregone]

35. No, actually it has nothing to do with any arbitrary concept of "justice"

Its about reviewing laws and decisions, and ruling whether they are congruent with (or contrary to) the Constitution of the United States.

If you can some how convince me of how anyone's ethnicity (and its historical background) could possibly enhance one's understanding and interpretation of constitutional law, then perhaps your argument would have any merit. Yes, I agree the the US government's treatment of the native populations was atrocious and disgusting. But, Im not sure why that makes people with a native ethnicity better at interpreting constitutional law.

[seemslikeadream]

36. It is not about ethnicity really it is about making things right with the people that were here

long before the whites showed up with their laws forced upon them




"By conservative estimates, the population of the United states prior to European contact was greater than 12 million. Four centuries later, the count was reduced by 95% to 237 thousand.


Damn we just failed to wipe them out completely, if we had we wouldn't have these pesky problems

[Oregone]

37. But the Supreme Court isn't about "making things right". Its about judicial review.

Those laws forced upon them are what they are beholden to, when operating behind that bench. Thats just the way it is.

[seemslikeadream]

38. judicial review, would be nice if it was done in a timely manner

[joeybee12]

28. Will become? It already is!

Bush v Gore...totally ignoring the foundation upon which the American system of jurisprudence is based...precedent!

[closeupready]

3. Is it true, as I read long ago, that Thomas Jefferson formed ideas about

how our government should be run, ideas which were modeled on Native American life and how their villages were run? Do you happen to know?

But yes, I think that would be great. Though, there probably have already been justices on the court who have Native American ancestors somewhere in their family trees.

[Hekate]

14. You may be thinking of Ben Franklin and the Iroquois Six Nations...

Try these links
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/
http://www.campton.sau48.k12.nh.us/iroqconf.htm

[closeupready]

15. Ah, yes, that's it.

thanks. :hi:

[Oregone]

20. I thought Jefferson was more interested in assimilating the natives (exterminating their culture)

I could be wrong.

[librechik]

4. Given the "qualifications" of some on the current court, ANY NATIVE AMERICAN

is qualified--perhaps more so.

[seemslikeadream]

6. To have some say in the supreme law of their land?

[Chulanowa]

16. Oh, I wouldn't say that

I know that I would sure as hell be chucking my gavel at the heads of various idiots. Let's call them A. Scalia and C. Thomas to protect their anonymity... Wait, that gives too much away, how about Antonin S. and Clarence T.? Yes, much better.

[Submariner]

8. It seems way, way past due for a Native American

to be in a highly visible position in one or all of the 3 branches of government. If any people were ever so colossally phucked over on this continent, it is without a shadow of a doubt, the Native American.

[Romulox]

9. Ever notice how there aren't ever any working class people who are "qualified"? nt

[Hekate]

24. You may be thinking of blue-collar *parentage*, because a law degree kind of pulls one out ...

... of the so-called "working class" doesn't it?

Hekate

[Romulox]

34. No, not necessarily. nt

[NightWatcher]

10. Spring Peltier from prison and let him dish out some "justice"

[seemslikeadream]

12. yes that would be one of my choices

you know that empathy thing and all

[Strelnikov_]

11. Larry Echohawk

Larry EchoHawk (born August 2, 1948 in Cody, Wyoming) is an attorney and legal scholar. EchoHawk was nominated in April 2009 by U.S. President Barack Obama to be the head of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs.<1> He served as Attorney General of Idaho from 1991 to 1995, the first Native American elected to a constitutional statewide office.

EchoHawk was raised in Farmington, New Mexico. He attended Brigham Young University on a football scholarship (playing as a safety), then received his Juris Doctor degree in 1973 from the University of Utah and entered law practice in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1977 he became general legal counsel for the Fort Hall, Idaho-based Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

. . .

Shortly after his 1994 defeat, EchoHawk accepted a faculty position at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School. In that capacity he teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure and federal Indian law. He has also published several scholarly papers.

[seemslikeadream]

13. Thank you so much Strelnikov_

He sounds like an excellent choice

[Critters2]

25. Here's where I realize I have my own prejudices....

cuz I'm not altogether comfortable with the idea of a Mormon on the Supreme Court--hearing cases that will affect women and gays.

Whatever that makes me, there you are.

[seemslikeadream]

27. John Echohawk,

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/free/biatrustfund.html

In his testimony before Congress, John Echohawk, director of Native American Rights Fund, called it "yet another serious and continuing breach in a long history of dishonorable treatment of Indian tribes and individual Indians by the United States government."
Arizona Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, bluntly called it "theft from Indian people."

These men were describing the single largest and longest-lasting financial scandal in history involving the federal government of the United States.

With no other recourse left at their disposal, NARF, along with other attorneys, filed a class action lawsuit in federal district court on June 10 on behalf of more than 300,000 American Indians. The suit charges Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Assistant Interior Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs Ada Deer and Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin with illegal conduct in regard to the management of Indian money held in trust accounts and managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

If the lawsuit's claims are correct, and there's an overwhelming body of evidence that suggests they are, then the federal government has lost, misappropriated or, in some cases, stolen billions of dollars from some of its poorest citizens.


"The BIA has spent more than 100 years mismanaging, diverting and losing money that belongs to Indians." The trust accounts in question -- which hold approximately $450 million at any given time -- aren't filled with government handouts. They contain money that belongs to individual Indians who have earned it from a variety of sources such as oil and gas production, grazing leases, coal production and timber sales on their allotted lands.
Revenues from such sources are held in more than 387,000 Individual Indian Money (IIM) accounts managed -- or according to detractors, "mismanaged" -- by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). "The BIA has spent more than 100 years mismanaging, diverting and losing money that belongs to Indians," Echohawk says. "They have no idea how much has been collected from the companies that use our land and are unable to provide even a basic, regular statement to Indian account holders."

Echohawk is quick to point out that the lawsuit was the very last resort. Native Americans have long been hopeful that a governmental remedy to the BIA's mismanagement could be found. Finally in 1994, after years of pressure by both Indians and legislators, Congress enacted the Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act and appointed Paul Homan as the special trustee charged with straightening out the century-old mess.

Once again there was hope. But the legislative solution proved to be just another in a long line of toothless piles of paper generated by government bureaucrats. Although Homan was ready and willing to repair the system, Congress failed to provide funds to make the changes a reality. With no other path before them, the Indians took their fight to the courts

[eleny]

17. It would be more than exciting

A surprise and much more, imo, if this came to pass.

[liberalhistorian]

32. Hell, yes, there are many

of them who are more than qualified, with stellar credentials, intelligence, ability, competence and experience. As to whether or not one would ever be appointed, even by the nation's first minority president, is another question entirely.

Here in SD, there are more than enough Indians qualified for local and state judgeships. But every time there's an opening, it just doesn't happen, never mind that there are nine reservations in this state and local and state laws have a huge effect on the large native population. Then again, SD is back in the stone ages when it comes to hatred of and racism against Indians, believe me.