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SCOTUS To Hear Case Against Secretary Mnuchin For Giving Coronavirus Funds to Corporations Instead of Tribal Governments

SilentPanda

SilentPanda

Member
Nov 6, 2017
13,733
Earth
The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari Friday in two cases challenging the Trump administration's distribution of $8 billion dollars of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding. The consolidated cases are Mnuchin v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and Alaska Native Village Corporation Association v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation.
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The aid was to be given to "tribal governments" and was specifically earmarked for easing the monetary burdens of the COVID-19 fallout. A group of tribal governments alleged in a federal lawsuit that the aid meant for them actually went to more than 230 Alaska Native for-profit corporations (ANCs).
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The Tribal governments prevailed at the district court level; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed that the corporations were not "Indian tribes." The D.C. Circuit Court ruled that only Alaska Native corporations that are formally recognized qualify as Indian tribes; further, it noted that "recognition" is a "legal term of art" in Indian law and the corporations have never been recognized in this formal sense. (Recognition gives tribes "a government-to-government relationship with the United States" and a host of other benefits.)
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Both the treasury secretary and the Alaska Native corporations petitioned for certiorari, arguing that the D.C. Circuit's ruling conflicts with the Congressional intent of the CARES Act and related Ninth Circuit precedent.
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lawandcrime.com

SCOTUS Grants Cert In Native American CARES Act Case | Law & Crime

The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari Friday in two cases challenging the Trump administration's distribution of $8 billion dollars of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding. The consolidated cases are Mnuchin v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis...
lawandcrime.com lawandcrime.com
 
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amon37

amon37

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,002
Good. I know this talks mostly about alaska but everywhere tribes have been devastated by Covid-19. Here in Arizona it's been really bad
 
Watershed

Watershed

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,820
I will be interested to see how SCOTUS rules. Gorsuch and liberal justices have a history of pro-Tribal Nation rulings. Although Alaska has a somewhat different approach to recognizing Indian Tribes than the lower 48 states, the spirit of the law seems the same. There is an unfortunate history of non-Tribal governments siphoning federal money and resources away from federally recognized tribal governments through corporations/political entities.
 
Addie

Addie

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,701
DFW
Sean C. said:
Strictly speaking, the lower court decisions were in favour of the tribes in this case, so the Supreme Court taking up the case only raises the possibility of the Supreme Court reversing that.

Not that I'm saying they will. There are any number of reasons why the SCOTUS might want to hear this case.
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Yeah. Probably to examine whether "Indian law" — a term of art — is automatically incorporated into a given statute or whether Congress must specifically reference it.

That said, an ANC is plainly not a government, so we'll see how this progresses.
 
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