On March 31, 2014 the Supreme Court denied review in the Alaska subsistence litigation known as the Katie John case.  The State of Alaska’s lawsuit was filed in 2005.  It asked the Court to overturn federal rules promulgated in 1999 that include waters subject to the federal reserved water rights doctrine in the definition of public lands in Title VIII of the  Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).  The federal rules provide a subsistence priority on those waters during times of shortage for rural Alaskans. The case is the third in a series that was commenced in 1985 to obtain the subsistence protections promised in ANILCA.

Kanji & Katzen represented the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) in the litigation as an intervenor in support of the 1999 federal rules.  AFN is the largest statewide Native organization in Alaska. Its membership includes 178 villages (both federally-recognized tribes and village corporations), 13 regional Native corporations and 12 regional nonprofit and tribal consortiums that contract and run federal and state programs. The mission of AFN is to enhance and promote the cultural, economic and political voice of the entire Alaska Native community.

The State of Alaska was joined by thirteen states and the Pacific Legal Foundation in an effort to obtain Supreme Court review of a successful Ninth Circuit decision.   A link to AFN’s press release on the matter is below.

http://www.nativefederation.org/2014/03/31/afn-applauds-supreme-court-decision-on-katie-john-case/

Kanji & Katzen is pleased to announce that David Giampetroni is now a member of the firm.

David started with the firm as an associate in 2006 after a clerkship with the Honorable David F. Hamilton of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, now with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  Prior to his clerkship David graduated from Indiana University School of Law – Bloomington, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, where he served as Managing Editor of the Indiana Law Journal.  Since joining Kanji & Katzen, David has represented tribes and tribal members in federal, state, tribal and administrative courts on numerous Indian law issues, including treaty rights, land claims, reservation issues,  gaming compact disputes, tribal jurisdiction, tribal employment and tribal membership and enrollment.

On March 29, 2013, a coalition of Washington tribes, with the firm serving as lead counsel, obtained a precedent-setting injunction against the State of Washington, requiring it to correct culverts under state highways that block fish passage. The culverts cut off more than 1,000 miles of salmon habitat and undermine tribal treaty fisheries.  The court ruled that the treaties, which reserved to the tribes “the right of taking fish, at usual and accustomed grounds and stations,” necessarily implied protection of the habitat on which treaty fisheries depend.  The court gave the State seventeen years to correct 1,600 barriers, and required coordination with affected tribes.  The decision puts teeth into a 2007 summary judgment order, which declared that the culverts violate treaties made with the tribes in the 1850’s.  The culverts decision is the culmination of a decades-long legal effort by Washington tribes, who first presented their claims for treaty-based habitat protection as part of the 1974 “Boldt decision,” which recognized tribal treaty rights to half the salmon catch and freedom from most state regulation.

For a copy of the Injunction, click here.  For a copy of the Memorandum and Decision, click here.  And for a copy of the 2007 Summary Judgment decision, click here.

On March 29, 2013, the United States Court for the Western District of New York dismissed a petition for habeas corpus under the Indian Civil Rights Act against the Seneca Nation of Indians and its Councilors.  The firm defended the Nation and Council, which had acted to protect the best interests of the Nation and its citizens following a federal indictment of the plaintiff on charges of theft and fraud while acting as an officer of the Nation’s gaming enterprise.  The Court held that the plaintiff was not subject to custody, detention, or banishment, and thus his remedies to challenge the Council’s action lie in the Seneca Nation, not federal court.  For a copy of the decision, click here.

On February 12, 2013, the firm secured the dismissal of four officials of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe in an action challenging the Tribe’s preservation and restoration of native Elwha River salmon and steelhead populations through conservation-based hatchery programs.  To read the Order, click here.