Federal Indian Law Cases in the Supreme Court's 2004-2005 Term Symposium: 2004-2005 Supreme Court Review

Abstract

In the October 2004 term of the Supreme Court, two federal Indian law cases were decided. In Cherokee Nation v. Leavitt, the Court decided that the federal contracting legislation and regulations required that the federal government honor its contractual obligations when the contractor had performed the services and operated the programs for which the contract was entered into, even when the contractor was a federally recognized Indian tribe. The federal government's position had been that due to the government-to-government relationship between the federal government and the tribe, the federal government was free to violate its contractual obligations to the Cherokee Nation.

In the second case, the Court decided that the expectations of the state and other holders of lands which were illegally taken from the Oneida Indian Nation of New York outweighed the expectations of the Oneida Indian Nation that justice would be done to their claim once they were allowed to present it to the federal courts. The Court applied, for the first time, the doctrine of laches to defeat the claim of the Oneida.

Keywords: Indian, supreme, contract, Cherokee, Leavitt, Oneida, Sherrill, laches, land