American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court: The Masking of Justice

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University of Texas Press, 1997 - 403 էջ

"Like the miner's canary, the Indian marks the shift from fresh air to poison gas in our political atmosphere; and our treatment of Indians, even more than our treatment of other minorities, reflects the rise and fall in our democratic faith," wrote Felix S. Cohen, an early expert in Indian legal affairs.

In this book, David Wilkins charts the "fall in our democratic faith" through fifteen landmark cases in which the Supreme Court significantly curtailed Indian rights. He offers compelling evidence that Supreme Court justices selectively used precedents and facts, both historical and contemporary, to arrive at decisions that have undermined tribal sovereignty, legitimated massive tribal land losses, sanctioned the diminishment of Indian religious rights, and curtailed other rights as well.

These case studies—and their implications for all minority groups—make important and troubling reading at a time when the Supreme Court is at the vortex of political and moral developments that are redefining the nature of American government, transforming the relationship between the legal and political branches, and altering the very meaning of federalism.

From inside the book

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Legal Masks Legal Consciousness
1
The Era of Defining Tribes Their Lands and Their Sovereignty
19
The Era of Congressional Ascendancy over Tribes 18861903
64
The Era of Myths Citizenship Nomadism and Moral Progress
118
The Era of Judicial Backlash and Land Claims
186
The Era of the Imperial Judiciary
235
Removing the Masks
297
Cases Cited
311
Supreme Court Justices Authoring the Fifteen Opinions Analyzed
316
Notes
319
Glossary
365
References
379
Index
391
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Հեղինակի մասին (1997)

A Lumbee Indian, David E. Wilkins is Associate Professor of Political Science and American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona.

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