While all the candidates to be the nominee of the Democratic Party are marking time in New Hampshire, staging no foray's into Vermont, say to Mississquoi, to unsettle an unsettled candidate, or jumping ahead to South Carolina, where 1st and 4th place finishes aren't already known, something grand and important is happening some where else tomorrow.
The American Indian Law Review at the OU College of Law will host a symposium featuring the lawyers arguing the landmark case of United States v. Billy Jo Lara. The issue, falling in the Rehnquist line of judicial termination cases, also known as the Christian Supremacy cases (Oliphant, Duro, Hicks), is whether tribes have criminal jurisdiction over non-member Indians (Indians enrolled in another tribe) , for offenses not covered by the Major Crimes Act, within the territorial jurisdiction of the court.
Some commentors write to the effect that this case may turn the question on whether the Supreme Court or Congress has the constitutional power to determine the scope of inherent tribal sovereign power, and that it may be the most important Indian law case of our generation. This is one way of looking at it. I see Rehnquist on trial. Marshall and Burger dissented in Oliphant, and Rehnquist's odd ediface has reached its sell-by date. The Congress discarded Termination as the policy of the United States. Rehnquist's agenda of Termination by Judicial Means, whether an exercise in misplaced Christian zeal, itself a violation of the establishment clause, or an expression of cultural superiority, a violation of something more important than the Constitution, something that law is only a dim reflection of, the unwritten basis of social peace, or a generations' adventure in Judicial Supremacy, it really doesn't matter. Rehnquist is old, and he must die.
The symposium runs from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Friday at the OU Law Center, with both the lawyers who argued the case before the Supreme Court this week, Alexander Reichert, counsel for Lara, and Edwin Kneedler, who works for the U.S. Solicitor General's Office and represents the United States.
Putting on the political hat, the symposium is at OU Law, in OK, a wide-open 2/3 primary state with 52 delegates. Also on 2/3 are AZ with 47, NM with 35, and ND with 22. 156 delegates from four wide-open early primary states with substantially higher than average enrolled Indian voter populations. It is possible to be in four places simultaniously, and at the cost of a half-day, back by 3 jaunt, on an otherwise perfectly wasted, post-debate spin-day.
The other political hat has a wider rim, a higher crown. On December 12, 2000, a Rehnquist majority suspended the Florida recount, and appointed the President-elect. No Democratic candidate for the Presidency who both believes that the November 2004 election will be close, and that the next President should not be determined by a Rehnquist majority, should sit this one out. It just encourages DeLay to staff the mob, and Rehnquist to uphold the mob, for larger and larger margins of ballot error. Rehnquist is old, and he must die.
Posted by at January 23, 2004 12:46 AM | TrackBack