Native American Law Watch – Summer 2015
View as PDF Articles: Pueblo of Jemez v. United States: Tenth Circuit Resurrects Land Claim – Unique Circumstance or Cloudy Title on the Horizon? The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that dismissed the…
Farm and Ranch Worker Exclusion from the Workers’ Compensation Act Declared Unconstitutional
On June 22, 2015, the Court of Appeals of the State of New Mexico declared the farm and ranch workers exclusion from the Workers’ Compensation Act to violate the Equal Protection Clause and therefore is unconstitutional pursuant to the New Mexico Constitution….
Final Clean Water Act Rulemaking: What is a Water of the United States?
Final Rule Issued: On May 26, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) issued their final rule defining the scope of “waters of the United States” regulated under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”).[1. The pre-publication version…
Native American Law Watch – Spring 2015
View as PDF Articles: Balancing Opposing Cultural and Religious Beliefs on a Shared Reservation: Agency consideration of “Native American culture” not enough to demonstrate narrowly tailored compelling interest In Northern Arapaho Tribe v. Ashe, the United States District Court for the District of…
Energy & Resources Notes – Spring 2015
View as PDF No Mora Moratorium on Drilling United States District Court Judge James Browning issued a lengthy opinion on January 19, 2015 invalidating Mora County’s “Community Rights and Local Self-Government Ordinance,” which was enacted by the County in 2013 that prohibited…
Update – Extended Deadline to Submit Comments to ONRR’s Proposed Rule on Royalty Valuations
This is an update to our recent article concerning the Office of Natural Resources Revenue’s (ONRR) proposed rulemaking for royalty valuations on Federal oil and gas leases and Federal and Indian coal leases. See 80 Fed. Reg. 608. On February 13, 2015,…
ONRR Proposes Oil, Gas and Coal Royalty Reform
Kick’em When They’re Down: ONRR Releases Proposed Federal Oil & Gas and Federal & Indian Coal Valuation Reform In a time of declining oil prices, the Department of the Interior (DOI) through the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) recently announced on…
Native American Law Watch – Winter 2015
View as PDF Articles: Financing affordable housing in Native American Communities Funding a housing development project using funds earmarked for tribal housing and funds limited under Title VI and VIII can be done in full compliance with federal law. The proper corporate structure…
Native American Law Watch – Fall 2014
View as PDF Articles: State Taxation of Tribal Leases Preempted by Federal Law In Seminole Tribe of Florida v. State of Florida, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida concluded that two Florida state taxes were precluded by federal…
Energy & Resources Notes – Fall 2014
View as PDF Proposed Clean Water Act Rulemaking:What is a Water of the United States The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”) have proposed a new rule to define the scope of “Waters of the United…