United States Second Circuit

In a petition under the Administrative Procedure Act challenging the Department of the Interior-s determination not to acknowledge the "tribal existence" of a purported Indian tribal nation, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) the evidence presented by the tribe was insufficient to raise a claim of "improper political influence" under the standard set forth in Town of Orangetown v. Ruckelshaus, 740 F.2d 185 (2d Cir. 1984); and 2) the Department's determination did not violate the Vacancies Reform Act.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/19/2009
• Published 10/19/2009

Judges

• PER CURIAM:, Before:  MINER and CABRANES, Circuit Judges, and KORMAN, District Judge.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Richard Emanuel, Branford, CT (David K. Jaffe, Brown Paindiris & Scott, P.C., Hartford, CT, on the brief), for petitioner-appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John B. Hughes, Assistant United States Attorney, District of Connecticut (Nora R. Dannehy, Acting United States Attorney, District of Connecticut, and William J. Nardini, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), for defendants-appellees., Mark F. Kohler, Assistant Attorney General (Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General, and Susan Quinn Cobb and Robert J. Deichert, Assistant Attorneys General, on the brief), Office of the Attorney General, Hartford, CT, for intervenors-respondents-appellees.