North Dakota has told a federal judge that the federal government should have to produce witnesses from several federal agencies, not just the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, that could bolster the state's $38 million suit claiming the government failed to control demonstrations against the Dakota Access pipeline.
A D.C. federal judge has rejected the Indian Health Service's bid to end a $10 million suit alleging the agency failed to cover costs under an Alaska tribal health organization's contract, saying the group gave proper notice of its claim before heading to court.
The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a First Circuit ruling that Native American tribes aren't exempt from federal law blocking suits against debtors who have filed for bankruptcy, saying the high court must resolve a circuit split over whether the federal Bankruptcy Code deprives tribes and their businesses of their sovereign immunity.
A Wisconsin federal judge has handed quick wins to a Chippewa tribe on several claims in its challenge to Enbridge Energy Co.'s Line 5 pipeline, but declined to immediately shut down the pipeline because of what the judge called the "significant public and foreign policy implications" of such a move.