🚨Good Morning!! Pre-Argument 🧵 3 of 3 explaining the constitutional challenges to #ICWA that #SCOTUS will hear today in Haaland v. #Brackeen: Anti-Commandeering. 1/7 This challenge is about state’s power. The idea, from the structure of the Constitution and the 10th Amendment, is that Congress has limited power, & can’t interfere with powers that belong to States. 2/7

🚨Good Morning!! Pre-Argument 🧵 2 of 3 explaining the constitutional challenges to #ICWA that #SCOTUS will hear today in Haaland v. #Brackeen: Article 1/Congressional Power. 1/16 Congress can only pass a law if the Constitution gives them the authority to pass that type of law. Congress must "have the power" to pass a law, or else the whole law is unconstitutional, & so are all the other laws of that type. 2/16

🚨Good Morning!! Pre-Argument 🧵 1 of 3 explaining the constitutional challenges to #ICWA that #SCOTUS will hear today in Haaland v. #Brackeen: The Equal Protection Clause (EPC). 1/14 The EPC of the 14th Amendment (w/ Due Process Clause of 5th) guarantee equal protection of the law, no matter who you are. #SCOTUS interprets this not to prohibit laws that treat categories of people differently but says laws are disfavored if they target disfavored groups. 2/14

This #SCOTUS opinion in #CastroHuerta is an act of conquest. Full stop.

The right and power of tribes to rule themselves is being dismissed in favor of state power.

Tribes are…I can’t even write it…part of states. For those wondering, “Why is it bad that states can prosecute too?”
Three answers:
1- States/Tribes have a long history of animosity. Fair treatment isn’t a fair assumption.
2- Tribes want to make different laws for their land than states.
3- Many resources are a zero sum game.

This #SCOTUS opinion in Castro Huerta is horrifying and insulting to Indian people and tribes.
I’m shaken.
Every few paragraphs of the majority opinion has another line that dismissively and casually cuts apart tribal independence that Native ancestors gave their lives for. Waking up to lines like:

The rules of law on most reservations “was relatively insignificant in the real world.”

And “Indian country is part of a State, not separate from a State.”

Just…how dare they.

[Thread] Yesterday was Three Kings Day. A Catholic holiday that has become a hybrid celebration of Pueblo spirituality and the day where the newly elected secular political leaders are honored and take office. Many pueblos dance our sacred Buffalo Dances.
[2/4] It's an honor to be asked to dance the Buffalo. One I dreamed about growing up. So much ceremony, care, prayer, history, understanding, and reverence goes into every inch of it. There is resilience, forgiveness, and perseverance in this day and those prayers.

Thread: Federal Indian Law context for what the #McGirt #SCOTUS decision and does not mean about which government now had power to do what in Oklahoma. This is how criminal jurisdiction works between the sovereigns on the land that federal law defines as “Indian Country.” “Indian Country” is defined to include “reservations.”
Several different laws and cases have made the rules about which government prosecutes who. One of them is the Major Crimes Act, it governs serious crimes committed by Indians. McGirt challenged only the Major Crimes Act.