News
Oklahoma Cherokee Tribe Appeals Freedmen Ruling to High Court
Rochelle Hines
The Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The
Cherokee Nation on Tuesday asked the
tribe's highest court to restore a constitu-
tional amendment approved by voters that
would deny citizenship to non-Native
American descendants of tribal members'
former black slaves.
Besides asking Cherokee Nation Supreme
Court to overturn a district court ruling that
voided the amendment, the tribe also asked
for more time to process some citizenship
applications.
The Jan. 14 ruling by Judge John Cripps
nullified the 2007 voter-approved amend-
ment requiring tribal citizens to have a
Native American ancestor listed on the
Dawes Roll on grounds it violated an 1866
treaty between the tribe and the federal gov-
ernment that granted citizenship to the
freedmen and their descendants.
``A constitutional case of this magnitude
should be decided by the Cherokee Nation's
highest court,'' Cherokee Nation Attorney
General Diane Hammons said in a state-
ment.
Hammons said the district court didn't go
by a 2006 tribal supreme court ruling that
said Cherokee citizens have the ``ultimate
authority'' to decide who can be a citizen.
``The district court also failed to address
or recognize any of the cited federal statutes
or cases that have construed that pertinent
portion of the 1866 treaty, in which the U.S.
government limited the treaty rights of non-
Indians,'' Hammons said.
The district court ruling came in the case
of hundreds of non-Native American
descendants who received notices after the
amendment passed that their citizenship
was being terminated. There were so many
who challenged the election outcome that
the court appointed a lawyer to represent
them and treated all appeals as a class
action.
The court filing seeks to delay the part of
Cripps' ruling that the tribe had 30 days
from the date of the order to process appli-
cations of non-Indians seeking tribal citi-
zenship.
Attorney Ralph Keen, who represents a
group of freedmen descendants, said he's
not surprised that the tribe has appealed
Cripps' ruling.
Black Indians, also known as tribal
``I look forward to arguing the matter
before the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court
and I am confident that the court will
uphold the justice that the district court gave
us,'' Keen said from his Stilwell office.
Freedmen, from the 19th century
Keen said he had 30 days to answer the
tribe's appeal petition.
A hearing on the stay request has been
scheduled for Feb. 2 in Tahlequah, Keen
said.
Florida Judge Strikes Down Health Care Overhaul
Ruling: New law violates people's rights by forcing them to buy health insurance
MELISSA NELSON
The Associated Press
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) -- A federal
judge ruled Monday that the Obama admin-
istration's health care overhaul is unconsti-
tutional, siding with 26 states that sued to
block it. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson
accepted without trial the states' argument
that the new law violates people's rights by
forcing them to buy health insurance by
2014 or face penalties.
Attorneys for the administration had
argued that the states did not have standing
to challenge the law and that the case should
be dismissed.
The next stop is likely the U.S. Supreme
Court. Two other federal judges have
upheld the insurance requirement, but a fed-
eral judge in Virginia also ruled the insur-
ance provision violates the Constitution.
In his ruling, Vinson went further than the
Virginia judge and declared the entire health
care law unconstitutional.
"This is obviously a very difficult task.
Regardless of how laudable its attempts
may have been to accomplish these goals in
passing the Act, Congress must operate
within the bounds established by the
Constitution," Vinson wrote in his 78-page
ruling.
At issue was whether the government is
reaching beyond its constitutional power to
regulate interstate commerce by requiring
citizens to purchase health insurance or face
tax penalties.
Attorneys for President Barack Obama's
administration had argued that the health
care system was part of the interstate com-
merce system. They said the government
can levy a tax penalty on Americans who
decide not to purchase health insurance
because all Americans are consumers of
medical care.
But attorneys for the states said the
administration was essentially coercing the
states into participating in the overhaul by
holding billions of Medicaid dollars
hostage. The states also said the federal
government is violating the Constitution by
forcing a mandate on the states without pro-
viding money to pay for it.
Florida's former Republican Attorney
General Bill McCollum filed the lawsuit
just minutes after Obama signed the 10-
year, $938 billion health care bill into law in
March. He chose a court in Pensacola, one
of Florida's most conservative cities. The
nation's most influential small business
lobby, the National Federation of
Independent Business, also joined.
Other states that joined the suit are:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado,
Georgia, Indiana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas,
Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi,
Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South
Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington,
Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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Jason Kafoury
told The Skanner
News this after-
noon that Fair’s
mother is dis-
traught and afraid
for the Parkrose
High
School
senior’s safety at
the adult jail,
which may have
been where he was
injured and hospi-
talized.
The case is com-
plicated by the fact
that Fair had a
severe psychiatric
breakdown after he
regained
con-
sciousness
at
OHSU, and has so
far not been able to recall
the events that led up to his
hospitalization.
None of the agencies and
institutions who had a hand
in Fair’s custody – the
Portland Police Department,
Multnomah County Sheriffs
Department, Multnomah
County Juvenile Justice and
OHSU, where his family
says he lay in a coma for
days cuffed to his hospital
bed -- have yet admitted
publically who injured the
teen, how, when or why.
State Rep. Lew Frederick,
D-Portland, last year initiat-
ed an investigation of the
Multnomah County Sheriffs
Department by the Oregon
State Police, which Kafoury
confirmed has not yet been
completed.
February 2, 2011 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3