federal judiciary

The greater level of child abuse, domestic violence, and violence against women on American Indian reservations is horrifying. One of the recommendations of the nine-member Indian Law and Order Commission in "A Roadmap to Making Native America Safer" to improve that situation is to allow tribes to opt of currently existing law enforcement systems in favor of their own--along with the establishment of a "U.S. Court of Indian Appeals to which a defendant could appeal on the grounds that his 4th, 5th, 6th or 8th amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution had been violated," Indian Country Today Media Network reports. The report argues for an American Indian law-centric circuit court '"because it would establish a more consistent, uniform, and predictable body of case law dealing with civil rights issues and matters of Federal law interpretation arising in Indian country."'

The localism of such a system reflects the strand in American polity that favors smaller government and also would promote the sovereignty of tribes at the same time. Commission Chairman Troy Eid, a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, told Indian Country Media Network,  the commision's report '"is not to tell anyone what to do, but it's also to say, 'Local government works best; it's the American way.' It's emphatically a better way to prevent crime…. It's clear that many Native governments, even those with not a lot of means, want to and will sacrifice in order to put sovereignty into action through enforcing their own criminal laws."'

The Wall Street Journal reports that more judges are speaking publicly beyond their opinions and court proceedings, including U.S. District Judge Richard G. Kopf of Nebraska starting a blog. "The old taboo seemed to take a hit this past year. Judges and legal experts point to several reasons judges may be speaking more freely now: A Supreme Court whose justices are frequently in the public eye, a desire among judges to defend themselves against political attacks and correct the record, and increased media interest in their work," The Journal further reports.

Lawyer Adam White writes in the Des Moines Register that federal judicial nominees aren't entitled to get a vote in the Senate. This has been a Democratic-party complaint after Republican senators once again blocked some of President Obama's judicial nominees. White points out, however, that the federal constitution doesn't require action by the Senate on judical nominees. "So if the Senate does not 'owe' all judicial nominations an up-or-down majority vote, then how does the Constitution resolve disputes between the president and the Senate over the Senate’s failure to vote on nominations?" White asks. "Simply put, the Constitution doesn’t resolve those disputes."

Diane J. Humetewa, a Hopi citizen, the first American Indian to serve as a United States attorney, and who has been an appellate court judge for the Hopi Tribe Appellate Court, was nominated this week by President Barack Obama for a federal judgeship on the U.S. District Court for Arizona. If confirmed, Humetewa would be the first American Indian woman and only the third American Indian overall to serve in the federal judiciary, according to Indian Country Today Media Network. "Indian affairs experts had been pressuring the president to make another Native American federal judgeship appointment – several more, in fact – citing the large number of Indian law cases heard in federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court's tendency not to understand tribal law," Indian Country Today further reports.