United States Ninth Circuit

Summary judgment in favor of plaintiff-tribe finding that the U.S. Secretary of the Interior violated the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of equal protection when the Secretary declined to enter into a self-determination contract with the Tribe to fund law enforcement on the Los Coyotes Reservation is reversed and remanded, where: 1) the Secretary properly rejected the Tribe's contract request; 2) the Tribe's reliance on the Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act was misplaced because the Act allows the Tribe to take control of existing programs and obtain funds that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) would otherwise spend on those programs, but here there was no existing BIA program, and therefore nothing to transfer to the Tribe; 3) the Administrative Procedure Act did not authorize the court to review the BIA's allocation of law enforcement funding in Indian Country; and 4) the BIA's funding policy did not violate the Fifth Amendment's equal protection guarantee.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/04/2013
• Published 09/04/2013

Judges

• MURGUIA

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel