''Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma v. Leavitt'', 543 U.S. 631 (2005), was a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case in which the Court held that a contract with the Federal Government to reimburse the tribe for health care costs was binding, despite the failure of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

to appropriate funds for those costs.''Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, et al. v. Leavitt'',

Background

In 1975,

enacted the

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 (Public Law 93-638) authorized the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, and some other government agencies to enter into contracts with, a ...

Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, (ISDEAA) which authorized several Federal agencies to enter into contracts with federally recognized Indian tribes. Pursuant to the ISDEAA, both the

Cherokee Nation The Cherokee Nation ( Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ ''Tsalagihi Ayeli'' or ᏣᎳᎩᏰᎵ ''Tsalagiyehli''), also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

and the

Shoshone The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easte ...

and

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Paiu ...

tribes of the

Duck Valley Indian Reservation The Duck Valley Indian Reservation () was established in the 19th century for the federally recognized Shoshone- Paiute Tribe. It is isolated in the high desert of the western United States, and lies on the state line, the 42nd parallel, betwee ...

(in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

and

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

) entered into contracts with the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is " ...

(HHS) to provide health care for tribal members. Under the ISDEAA and the contracts, HHS was to pay the tribes' costs for providing that care. In contracts for fiscal years 1994 through 1997, HHS agreed to pay contract support costs to the tribes, but later refused to do so on the grounds that Congress had not appropriated sufficient funds.

Original proceedings

In one of the cases, the Cherokee tribe first sought relief in administrative proceedings before the Interior Board of Contract Appeals (Board). The Board found for the tribe, ordering the government to pay the Cherokees $8.5 million in damages. In the second case, the tribes then brought suit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, seeking approximately $6.9 million for breach of contract. The District Court found against the tribe, stating that HHS could not pay (through the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

, which managed the funds) if Congress had not appropriated enough money.

Appellate proceedings

Both cases were appealed – the first by the government to the

Federal Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (in case citations, Fed. Cir. or C.A.F.C.) is a United States court of appeals that has special appellate jurisdiction over certain types of specialized cases in the U.S. federal court ...

and the second by the tribes to

Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Distric ...

. Both appellate courts affirmed the decision of the lower courts, which had the result of opposite rulings on almost identical facts. The

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

granted

certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

to resolve the conflict.

Opinion of the Court

Justice

Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and rep ...

delivered the opinion of the court, in which six of the other justices joined. Breyer affirmed the Federal Circuit's decision in favor of the Cherokee tribe and reversed the Tenth Circuit decision that was in favor of the government. The government argued that if these were "ordinary procurement contracts, its promises to pay would be legally binding" but that these were "unique, government-to-government" contracts. The government felt that the tribes should only get the pro-ratia portion of the funds that had been appropriated. Breyer noted that Congress was concerned "with he/nowiki> Government's past failure adequately to reimburse tribes' indirect administrative costs and a congressional decision to require payment of those costs in the future." Breyer was unpersuaded by the arguments of the government and found in favor of the tribes.

Concurring opinion

Justice

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectu ...

concurred in the opinion with the exception of the majority's reliance on a

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

committee report to determine the intent of Congress.

Subsequent developments

This case has played a major role in promoting tribal

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a '' jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It sta ...

, while holding the Federal government accountable for paying contracts that it made with the various tribes.Jensen, Mary, ''Recent Decision: Contracts Formed Under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act are as Binding as Any Other Government Agreements with a Contractor: Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma v. Leavitt'', 44 Duq.L.Rev. 399 (2006) It is one of the few bright spots for Indian litigation in a period where most of the Supreme Court decisions are going against the tribes.Washburn, Kevin K., ''Indian Law at a Crossroads: Tribal Self-Determination at the Crossroads'', 38 Conn.L.Rev. 777 (2006) Skibine, Alex Tallchief, ''The Pedagogy of Indian Law: Teaching Indian Law in an Anti-Tribal Era'', 82 N.D.L.Rev. 777 (2008)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cherokee Nation Of Oklahoma V. Leavitt United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States court cases involving the Cherokee Nation United States Native American case law Shoshone Paiute 2005 in United States case law Native American history of Oklahoma