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U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

reuters.com

221–230 of 1001 posts

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#221
post #73

So when are they going to get to all the other unlawful stuff the government does?

When cases against all the other unlawful stuff reach them, presumably.

Maybe, maybe not. Plenty of activist judges out there, so you never know how stuff will go. SCOTUS also gets to select what they will look at, and there are plenty of topics that they have left as split circuit opinions (look at all the stuff under gun rights).

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If congress doesn't change something, then that means they have determined no change is necessary. That isn't an invitation for the executive branch (or judiciary) to overreach. In theory congress could go years without passing a single law, and that would be fine. It would signal that the current laws are sufficient. (As an aside, congress has ceded much of it's lawmaking authority to federal agencies anyway -- so e…

I understand your point, but I fear you may misunderstand, because I believe the Decision is in line with your views. The justices' point is that congress, in its inaction, has not enabled the reduction in Creek reservations that has been perpetrated through large-scale disenfranchisement all all levels of governance, actions which are in direct conflict with the reservation treaty signed in perpetuity. For these act…

No, I understand, and agree with the decision.

My disagreement is with people who excuse executive overreach by saying, "congress refused to act." Put another way, they're saying, "I had to work around the law to get what I wanted."

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#223

Honestly after all the Native Americans went through, give them the whole state at least. People in the United States speak and reflect often about the atrocities of slavery. We need to equally reflect on and remember the atrocities against Native Americans.

I'd rather not. In the NorCal (Jefferson) reservations, the natives setup huge nets to catch fish, load them into refrigerated trucks, and sell the catch to San Francisco restaurants. It's devastating to the ecosystem. As with building casinos, or the Grand Canyon Skywalk, they tend to commercialize/exploit as much as they can when they are free from state laws.

They are sovereign. Neither you nor the state of California should impose your views on them. If anything, we should ask permission from them to be on California land.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#224

"We reject that thinking. If Congress wishes to withdraw its promises, it must say so." As with so many controversial court rulings like the ACA mandate case, our courts keep getting put into the decision because of the massive failure that congress is. Congress should either fulfill the promise or not, or whatever. instead the judicial bodies end up making legal judgements with big ramifcations that largely should b…

> our courts keep getting put into the decision because of the massive failure that congress is We need more Civics classes for students. Branches of the Federal Government being put into the decision because of a massive failure of another is exactly why we have 3 branches. It's rock-paper-scissors. Checks and balances. Which is why, for instance, people squawk so much when the executive branch imagines itself new p…

Do undue the decades assault on the very idea that government can be good or efficient.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#225
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These rights existing because the US government signed treaties with independent foreign nations. Those treaties are valid law until the Congress withdraws from them.

Did the US government ever acknowledge them as independent foreign nations? The War of Independence was partly fought to get away from the British proclamation of 1763 that said you couldn't settle west of the Appalachians without a treaty. Oklahoma was part of the Louisiana purchase, the US considered it their land for that reason. The US signed treaties with the indigeneous population in an attempt to secure peace,…

> Did the US government ever acknowledge them as independent foreign nations?

Yes. That's why we had to write treaties with them, to gain proper title to the land. Even if we treated those who signed the treaties as having more authority than they actually did, and if we treated the treaties as mere scraps of paper, those treaties were still seen as treaties with legitimate sovereign nations.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#226
post #114
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not everyone assimilate? Yes, exactly, why not the USians assimilate into the many Native nations they occupy? They've had literal centuries...

Native Americans had wars and conquered each other for millennia before white man came. It wasn't some unified utopia in the Americas like Pocahontas leads you to believe. It was a huge cycle of tribalism, conquering each other, and bloodshed. So... because they were conquering each other first, a technologically superior entity isn't allowed to conquer them?

[deleted]

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#227

"We reject that thinking. If Congress wishes to withdraw its promises, it must say so." As with so many controversial court rulings like the ACA mandate case, our courts keep getting put into the decision because of the massive failure that congress is. Congress should either fulfill the promise or not, or whatever. instead the judicial bodies end up making legal judgements with big ramifcations that largely should b…

> our courts keep getting put into the decision because of the massive failure that congress is We need more Civics classes for students. Branches of the Federal Government being put into the decision because of a massive failure of another is exactly why we have 3 branches. It's rock-paper-scissors. Checks and balances. Which is why, for instance, people squawk so much when the executive branch imagines itself new p…

I don’t have kids so I have no idea what is thought/taught anymore, but this is the sort of thing I was exposed to repeatedly starting in late grade school through early high school. I found government boring back then so I didn’t elect to take classes beyond the basic curriculum in that area.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean "them"? You do realize that there were many different tribes who had very drastically different interactions with the US, right?

I believe the answer would be > Native Americans. Whether that encompasses multiple tribes or not, doesn't change that.

Giving the Florida Seminoles territory in Oklahoma (or giving land to an Oklahoma tribe and calling that a ceding to Seminoles?) would be weird at best.

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and has extremely deep pockets

Not necessarily the case. There are lit fees of course, and filing fees, discovery, etc. But once you get to the SCOTUS stage, assuming you're not retaining Gibson Dunn or Covington or someone's supreme court practice, there are many clinics with some star power that will do the case for free. Many top law schools have Supreme Court clinic and we sought out cases that we could bring to SCOTUS. We would have died to h…

What does clinic mean in this context? Thanks

Re: U.S. Supreme Court deems half of Oklahoma a Native American reservation

#230
post #73

So when are they going to get to all the other unlawful stuff the government does?

when someone - like you - starts working for it. You are going to start, right?

I would if I believed in the system. The system has become an oligarchy where the ruling class is not subject to rule of law. The system ignores blatant violation of law by making frivolous excuses. For example, how can we allow people to wait years for a trial when the constitution guarantees the right to a speedy trial?
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