Legal Issues
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Nation: The fight over Native American adoptions is about more than just the children
Time: "Each time Elisia Manuel sees her daughter Precious rehearsing traditional basket dancing and humming tribal songs around their home in Casa Grande, Arizona, she’s overwhelmed with emotion. 'It’s beautiful to witness,' the mother of three says. 'She’s part of the community.'" -
Wanted: Lawyers for rural America
Pew Charitable Trust: "In 2012, the American Bar Association called on federal, state and local governments to curb the decline of rural lawyers, and South Dakota responded. The following year, it became the first state to enact legislation to recruit lawyers to rural areas." -
Nation: Judges reveal stress, scrutiny they face in their jobs
Courthouse News Service: "Former federal judge Jeremy Fogel started a firestorm when he ruled that California’s execution procedures were unconstitutionally harsh back in 2006. Despite the hundreds of angry emails and letters, he said he’s glad it happened before Twitter took off." -
Iowa Supreme Court affirms Dakota Access pipeline project
WRAL News: "The Iowa Supreme Court said Friday that a crude oil pipeline running across Iowa was legally permitted to be built dashing the hopes of a group of farmer landowners who wanted the pipeline moved off their land and an environmental group that wanted it shut down." -
U.S.: Blacks and Hispanics face military trials at disproportionate rates, GAO report to Congress says
Stars and Stripes: "Black and Hispanic servicemembers are more likely to face criminal investigations and be brought to trial than their white counterparts, though they are no more likely to be convicted, according to a government watchdog investigation report." -
U.S.: Navigating the immigration court system in the rural mountain West
NPR News: "The backlog in U.S. immigration courts is now over 850,000 cases long. People can wait years for their hearings. And that can be a long time to pay for a lawyer and to make appearances in court. Both of these things can be much harder for immigrants living in rural and mountainous parts of the West." -
U.S.: Longest-running housing discrimination case outlives judge
ABC Fox Montana News: "A federal judge who worked until his recent death at age 96 left a historic trail of groundbreaking legal opinions. But one case outlived Damon Keith: the longest-running housing discrimination lawsuit in the United States." -
Lake Region Bar Association holds Law Day event
The Lake Region Bar Association held a Law Day event at the Lake Region Heritage Museum May 1. Fourth, fifth and sixth graders from Tate Topa Tribal School in Fort Totten, Sweetwater Elementary School in Devils Lake and Starkweather Public School performed a mock trial and deliberated as jurors in the historic federal courtroom. -
Nation: Study examines how tribes have used treaty rights to successfully halt energy development
University of Kansas: "A University of Kansas law professor has written a study analyzing seven cases in which treaty rights have been upheld in courts or administrative bodies and prevented energy development in areas with legal ties to tribes opposed to the projects." -
U.S.: Seat reclining dispute aboard flight from MSP ends in legal thicket
MPR News: "On July 9, 2015, two passengers had a heated argument aboard a Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. It started when Monique Lozoya tried to recline her seat and the passenger behind her, Oded Wolff, traveling with his wife, jostled the seatback."