American Indian trust information ruling [US DC] News
American Indian trust information ruling [US DC]

Corbell v. Norton, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, July 12, 2005 [ruling ordering the US Interior Department to admit to American Indian plaintiffs that information being provided to them regarding outstanding lost royalties on earnings from Indian land may be unreliable]. Excerpt:

But when one strips away the convoluted statutes, the technical legal complexities, the elaborate collateral proceedings, and the layers upon layers of interrelated orders and opinions from this Court and the Court of Appeals, what remains is the raw, shocking, humiliating truth at the bottom: After all these years, our government still treats Native American Indians as if they were somehow less than deserving of the respect that should be afforded to everyone in a society where all people are supposed to be equal.

Read the full text of the opinion here [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.