On the morning of Tuesday, June 1, 2021, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously found in the case United States v. Cooley that a Crow tribal police officer had the authority to detain and search a non-Native suspected of committing a crime on a highway crossing through the Crow Reservation. Cooley, a non-Native, had challenged the authority of tribal law enforcement to stop and detain non-Indians who are suspected of committing crimes within the borders of an Indian reservation and asked the Supreme Court to uphold the Ninth Circuit’s decision which concluded that tribal law enforcement can only stop and detain a non-Indian suspected of committing a crime if it is “apparent” or “obvious” that a crime is being committed. The presenter will discuss the amicus curiae brief filed on behalf of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource, asking the Court to uphold the inherent sovereignty of Tribal Nations to protect their women and children from non-Indian perpetrators of crimes on tribal lands. The presenter will also discuss the Supreme Court’s decision’s impact on issues related to safety for Native women.

Date: Friday, December 3, 2021

Time: 12:00pm – 1:05pm (Pacific)

Location: Online Event

Mary Kathryn Nagle
Partner, Pipestem & Nagle, P.C.

Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is also a partner at Pipestem and Nagle Law, P.C., where she works to protect tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. She is most well known for her work on ending violence against Native women. Her play Sliver of a Full Moon has been performed in law schools from Stanford to Harvard, NYU and Yale. She has worked extensively on Violence Against Women Act re-authorization, and she has filed numerous briefs in the United States Supreme Court, as a part of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s VAWA Sovereignty Initiative, including most recently, United States v. Cooley, Oklahoma v. McGirt, and Oklahoma v. Murphy. She represents numerous families of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, including Kaysera Stops Pretty Places’ family who have brought a public campaign demanding an investigation into her murder. More can be read here: www.justiceforkaysera.org

An application will be submitted to the Oregon State Bar for 1.0 Access to Justice CLE credits. Once approved in Oregon, this program will be approved for 1.0 CLE credits with the State Bar of California; NCVLI is an approved CA multiple activity provider. The training may be eligible for CLE credit in other states; a certificate of attendance will be available after the program.

National Alliance of Victims’ Rights Attorneys (NAVRA) is a project of National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI). For more information about NAVRA, visit www.navra.org.