Cherokee Cases
(1831 and 1832).The U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832), often referred to as the Cherokee Cases, considered the status of ...
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. 1 (1831)
Prompted in the late 1820s by discoveries of gold, the state of Georgia adopted statutes putting territory possessed by the Cherokee Indians under county court jurisdictions and rendering Cherokee ...
Child Custody
For many years, English law followed the Roman tradition of treating minor children as their father’s responsibility. Because he was responsible for their support, education, and protection, the ...
Commerce Power
Article 1, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power “to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” Commerce refers ...
Crow Dog, Ex Parte
109 U.S. 557 (1883), argued 20 Nov. 1883, decided 17 Dec. 1883 by vote of 9 to 0; Matthews for the court. Crow Dog, a Brule Sioux, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for the murder of ...
Eleventh Amendment
Is one of only two constitutional amendments adopted explicitly to repudiate a Supreme Court decision—the other being the Sixteenth Amendment (see Reversals of Court Decisions by Amendment). The ...
folk Law
This category may be defined as law that derives its existence and content from social acceptance. It is commonly contrasted with state law, which derives its existence and content from ...
Indian Bill of Rights
The Indian Civil Rights Act, popularly known as the “Indian Bill of Rights,” was adopted as Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The most important provisions limit ...
International Law Of Indigenous People's Rights
Three sets of law govern United States indigenous groups: tribal law, federal Indian law, and international law, which has thus far not played a major role. As indigenous peoples become ...
James M. Nabrit
(b. 4 September 1900; d. 27 December 1997),civil rights lawyer, law professor, and university president. James Madison Nabrit Jr., a dedicated civil rights lawyer, educator, and public servant, ...
Johnson and Graham's Lessee v. Mcintosh
8 Wheat. (21 U.S.) 543 (1823), argued 17 Feb. 1823, decided 10 Mar. 1823 by vote of 7 to o; Marshall for the Court. This was the first Supreme Court case to define the legal relationship of Native ...
Kagama, United States v.
118 U.S. 375 (1886), argued 2 Mar. 1886, decided 10 May 1886 by vote of 9 to o; Miller for the Court. Kagama applied the broad principles governing Indian relations that Chief Justice John Marshall ...
Karl Nickerson Llewellyn
(1893–1962)Karl N. Llewellyn was born on 22 May 1893 in Seattle, Washington. He spent most of his early years in Brooklyn, New York, and Mecklenburg, Germany, subsequently entering Yale ...
Kennewick, Washington, USA
[Si]Site of the burial of a single adult male, on land controlled by the US Army Corps of Engineers, that has caused considerable legal and ethical turmoil over questions of ownership, cultural ...
Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock
187 U.S. 553 (1903), argued 23 Oct. 1902, decided 5 Jan. 1903 by vote of 9 to 0; White for the Court. In Lone Wolf, the Supreme Court recognized a near-absolute plenary congressional power over ...
Muskrat v. United States
219 U.S. 346 (1911), argued 30 Nov.–2 Dec. 1910, decided 23 Jan. 1911 by vote of 7 to 0; Day for the Court; Van Devanter and Lamar not participating. On 1 March 1907, Congress passed legislation ...
Native American Removal
Both the surrender of tribal lands and the relocation of Indian peoples were significant elements of Indian policy from the earliest days of the American Republic. However, the original treaty ...
Smith Thompson
Associate Justice, 1823–43• Born: Jan. 17, 1768, Amenia, N.Y.• Education: College of New Jersey (Princeton), B.A., 1788; read law with James Kent in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.• Previous government service: ...
Talton v. Mayes
163 U.S. 376 (1896), argued 16–17 Apr. 1896, decided 18 May 1896 by vote of 8 to 1; White for the Court, Harlan in dissent. Talton v. Mayes was an appeal by a Cherokee from a homicide conviction by a ...
Thurgood Marshall
(1908–1993), civil rights lawyer, first African American Supreme Court justice, architect of the attack on legally mandated racial segregation that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education ...
