Justia U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

In 2006, the Secretary of the Interior approved amendments to Title 8 of the Omaha Tribal Code, which modified the tribe's Beverage Control Ordinance and allowed the tribal government to impose a 10 percent sales tax on the purchase of alcohol from any licensee on tribal land. The Omaha Tribe attempted to enforce this alcohol tax on establishments in or near Pender engaged in the sale of alcoholic beverages. Those establishments and the village claimed that they were not located within the boundaries of the Reservation and not subject to the tax. The district court denied declaratory and injunctive relief. The Omaha Tribal Court as well and the district court determined that Pender and the areas at issue are located on Omaha tribal land. The Eighth Circuit affirmed, holding that Congress did not intend to "diminish" the boundaries of the Omaha Indian Reservation in Nebraska when it enacted an 1882 Act that ratified an agreement for the sale of Omaha tribal lands to non-Indian settlers. View "Smith v. Parker" on Justia Law

South Dakota Native American inmates filed suit against defendants claiming that a tobacco ban substantially burdened the exercise of their religious beliefs in violation of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA), 42 U.S.C. 2000cc-1(a). The court concluded that the record amply showed that the inmates have satisfied their burden. That some Native Americans practicing the Lakota religion would consider red willow bark a sufficient alternative to tobacco did not undermine the decision of the district court. Even assuming that defendants' ban on tobacco furthered compelling government interests in security and order, the ban was not the least restrictive means of achieving that interest. The court concluded that the scope of the district court's remedial orders extended no further than necessary to remedy the violation of inmates' rights under RLUIPA. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's grant of injunctive relief in all respects. View "Native American Council, etc., et al. v. Weber, et al." on Justia Law

After receiving an adverse ruling from the Rosebud tribal courts regarding a casino management contract, plaintiff filed suit in federal court seeking to vacate the tribal court ruling and to enjoin the Tribe from continuing a second action in the Rosebud tribal courts. The court reversed the district court's denial of the Tribe's motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to exhaust tribal court remedies pertaining to BBC's challenge of the tribal courts' jurisdiction; remanded this part of the claim to the district court with instructions to enter an order dismissing plaintiff's complaint; and affirmed the district court's orders in all other respects. View "Colombe v. Rosebud Sioux Tribe, et al." on Justia Law

Defendant, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of the Chippewa Indians, entered into a satellite television contract with DISH but used his daughter's credit card to open his account. After defendant stopped making payments, DISH charged the daughter's credit card. The daughter sued DISH in state court but DISH removed to federal court where it filed a third party complaint against defendant. Defendant then filed an abuse of process claim against DISH in tribal court. At issue on appeal was DISH's challenge to the district court's denial of its motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining the tribal court from conducting a trial on defendant's abuse of process claim. The court affirmed the district court's judgment because it was not "plain" that the tribal courts lacked jurisdiction over defendant's abuse of process complaint. View "DISH Network Service L.L.C. v. Laducer, et al." on Justia Law

The Committee sued the NCAA for interfering with the University of North Dakota's use of the Fighting Sioux name, logo, and imagery. The district court treated the NCAA's motion to dismiss as a motion for summary judgment and granted summary judgment in favor of the NCAA. The court concluded that the Committee had not shown that the NCAA acted with discriminatory intent; the Committee was not denied due process by the NCAA because, as a nonmember, it was entitled to none from the NCAA; and the NCAA's act neither violated the laws of the land nor plainly violated its own constitution and bylaws. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Spirit Lake Tribe of Indians, et al v. The NCAA" on Justia Law

After the Secretary denied Sandy Lake's request to hold an election so that Sandy Lake's members could vote on a proposed constitution, Sandy Lake filed suit seeking an order directing the Secretary to call an election. The district court dismissed the suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on Sandy Lake's failure to exhaust administrative remedies. Sandy Lake then filed a second lawsuit without appealing the first lawsuit or exhausting its administrative remedies and subsequently appealed the adverse summary judgment on its claims alleged in the second lawsuit. The court affirmed the district court's original determination that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. The court concluded that issue preclusion barred the court from reaching the merits of the appeal. Accordingly, the court affirmed the dismissal of the case, modifying it to be without prejudice. View "Sandy Lake Band v. United States, et al" on Justia Law

Defendant, a member of the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota, was charged with crimes related to her administration of the Tribe's Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Defendant was found guilty of embezzlement and willful misapplication. On appeal, defendant challenged her conviction and sentence. The court held that the district court did not err when it instructed the jury that, to find defendant guilty of misapplying tribal property, it must find beyond a reasonable doubt that she used tribal funds or property "knowing that such use [was] unauthorized, or unjustifiable, or wrongful." The district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to give the proposed good faith instruction but permitting defendant to introduce evidence that supported her claim of good faith and argue its significance to the jury. Finally, the court held that defendant's contention that the district court abused its discretion when it imposed a special condition of her probation, that required her to abstain from the use of alcohol and to submit to drug and alcohol screening, was without merit. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Robertson" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of being an accessory after the fact, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 3, 1151, and 1153(a), by assisting her boyfriend to avoid apprehension knowing that he had committed a murder in Indian country. The court agreed with defendant's contention that the district court erred by instructing the jury that the boyfriend was guilty of an offense against the United States; admitting a minute entry from the boyfriend's criminal case reciting that he had pleaded guilty "to Count 6 of the Superseding Indictment" to prove that he committed the predicate offense; and precluding defendant from presenting evidence that the boyfriend's action, and her knowledge of his action, included facts that could persuade a jury to find that the boyfriend acted in self-defense. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded with directions to enter a judgment of acquittal. View "United States v. Head" on Justia Law

After the National Indian Gaming Commission decided that a 1994 consent decree involving the City of Duluth and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa was incompatible with federal law, the Band moved for dissolution of the consent decree. The City opposed the motion and the district court granted it in part and denied it in part. Both parties appealed. The Commission's change in the law governing Indian gaming made illegal what the earlier consent decree was designed to enforce. The 2011 decision by the Commission, the agency authorized by Congress to interpret and enforce the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, 25 U.S.C. 2701 et seq., ruled that the 1994 arrangement between the City and the Band violated the Act. That determination provided ample support for the district court's decision to grant prospective relief from continued enforcement of the 1994 consent decree into the 2011 to 2036 period since continued execution of the agreement would be "no longer equitable." It was unclear what conclusion the district court would have reached without its mistaken belief that Rule 60(b)(6) was not available for consideration of potential retrospective relief. The district court abused its discretion by not examining all the relevant factors and therefore the court reversed the district court's decision denying retrospective relief to the Band for its obligations to pay rent withheld from 2009 to 2011 and remanded that question for further consideration. View "City of Duluth v. Fond Du Lac Band of Chippewa" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery of an Indian tribal official, and aiding and abetting a bribery involving an agent of an Indian tribal government. Defendant raised evidentiary challenges on appeal. The court held that the district court did not plainly err in determining that evidence relating to uncharged bribery activity was "intrinsic" to the charged conspiracy and therefore admissible notwithstanding the government's failure to give defendant pretrial notice of its intent to use this evidence. Given the substantial evidence of defendant's guilt, and defendant's failure to object and his decision to rehash the same testimony on cross-examination, the court concluded that defendant was not sufficiently prejudiced by the admission of the testimony at issue for the court to exercise its discretion to recognize plain error, if any existed. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Duane Dale Big Eagle" on Justia Law