In Re Nacotee for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

389 F. Supp. 784, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14198
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedJanuary 24, 1975
Docket74-C-158
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 389 F. Supp. 784 (In Re Nacotee for a Writ of Habeas Corpus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Nacotee for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, 389 F. Supp. 784, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14198 (E.D. Wis. 1975).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

MYRON L. GORDON, District Judge.

In a decision and order dated July 10, 1974, I denied Mr. Nacotee’s petition for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. A Menominee Indian, he claimed that the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him for conduct occurring on the land owned by Menominee Enterprises, Inc.

This matter is now before me on the petitioner’s motion to reconsider. In the alternative, he seeks certification of probable cause for purposes of appeal. Mr. Nacotee maintains that this court erred in its determination that state jurisdiction existed pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1162, which is entitled “State jurisdiction over offenses committed by or against Indians in the Indian country.” I conclude that my decision and order dated July 10,1974, should stand.

I.

In the period of time which has elapsed since this motion for reconsideration was filed, Mr. Nacotee has been *785 acquitted of the state charges involved here. Therefore, his immediate interest in this matter appears to have evaporated. Nevertheless, considerations of judicial economy, together with an appreciation of the nature of the issue involved and the implications it holds for a specific group, persuade me that this matter should not be dismissed on grounds of mootness. See American Party v. White, 415 U.S. 767, 94 S.Ct. 1296, 39 L.Ed.2d 744 (1974); Storer v. Brown, 415 U.S. 724, 94 S.Ct. 1274, 39 L.Ed.2d 714 (1974); Moore v. Ogilvie, 394 U.S. 814, 89 S.Ct. 1493, 23 L.Ed.2d 1 (1969). Compare Richardson v. Ramirez, 418 U.S. 24, 94 S.Ct. 2655, 41 L.Ed. 2d 551 (1974) with De Funis v. Odegaard, 416 U.S. 312, 94 S.Ct. 1704, 40 L.Ed.2d 164 (1974).

II.

The petitioner claims that 18 U.S.C. § 1162 was repealed by § 899 of the Menominee Termination Act, 25 U.S.C. §§ 891-902, which was itself repealed by the terms of the Menominee Restoration Act, 25 U.S.C. §§ 903-903Í. He points to 1 U.S.C. § 108, which provides that:

“Whenever an Act is repealed, which repealed a former Act, such former Act shall not thereby be revived, unless it shall be expressly so provided.”

The petitioner’s analysis turns upon his contention that 18 U.S.C. § 1162 (1954) was affected by the termination and restoration acts. Section 899 of the termination act, which became effective in 1961, read in pertinent part as follows:

“[A] 11 statutes of the United States which affect Indians because of their status as Indians shall no longer be applicable to the members of the tribe ft

The court of appeals in Anderson v. Gladden, 293 F.2d 463, 466 (9th Cir. 1961), discussed the effect upon 18 U.S. C. § 1162 of a termination act the provisions of which are quite similar to the one involved here. The court observed:

“In unambiguous terms, Public Law 280 [18 U.S.C. § 1162] withdrew federal jurisdiction over offenses committed in specified areas of Indian country by the grant of exclusive jurisdiction therein to five designated states.
“In our view, this unambiguous statutory language is not obscured because Congress in the following year enacted legislation which provided comprehensive procedures for the termination of federal supervision over the property of the Klamath Indian Tribe and its members and for the termination of federal services furnished such Indians because of their status as Indians. .
“The 1954 [termination] enactment dealt with the relationship between the Klamath Indian Tribe and its members and the United States as the relationship then existed. But by then, pursuant to Public Law 280, any treaty right these Indians may have had to be tried in a federal court had already been terminated.”

In Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U.S. 404, 411-412, 88 S.Ct. 1705, 1710, 20 L.Ed.2d 697 (1968), the United States Supreme Court considered the relationship between 18 U.S.C. § 1162 and 25 U.S.C. § 899:

“Public Law 280, as amended [18 U.S.C. § 1162], became the law in 1954, nearly seven years before the Termination Act became fully effective in 1961 .
“Public Law 280 must ... be considered in pari materia with the Termination Act. The two Acts read together mean to us that, although federal supervision of the tribe was to cease and all tribal property was to be transferred to new hands, the hunting and fishing rights granted or preserved by the Wolf River Treaty of 1854 [and enumerated in § 1162 together with the provisions for state jurisdiction] survived the Termination Act of 1954.
“This construction is in accord with the overall legislative plan. The Termination Act by its terms provided *786 for the ‘orderly termination of Federal supervision over the property and members’ of the tribe. 25 U.S.C. § 891. The Federal Government ceded to the State of Wisconsin its power of supervision over the tribe and the reservation lands, as evident from the provision of the Termination Act that the laws of Wisconsin ‘shall apply to the tribe and its members in the same manner as they apply to other citizens or persons within [its] jurisdiction.’
“The provision of the Termination Act (25 U.S.C. § 899

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
389 F. Supp. 784, 1975 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14198, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-nacotee-for-a-writ-of-habeas-corpus-wied-1975.