- Court: United States Supreme Court
- Area(s) of Law: Indian Law
- Date Filed: June 25, 2021
- Case #: 20-543
- Judge(s)/Court Below: SOTOMAYOR, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and BREYER, KAVANAUGH, and BARRETT, JJ., joined, and in which ALITO, J., joined as to Parts I, II–C, II–D, III, and IV. GORSUCH, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS and KAGAN, JJ., joined.
- Full Text Opinion
Petitioner and Respondents litigated a dispute over distribution of funds to “Indian Tribes” under the CARES Act. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held in favor of Respondent’s finding that the ANCs were not Indian Tribes. The Supreme Court granted cert and Petitioner argued that the plain meaning of Indian Tribe meant that ANCs were included. Conversely, Respondent argued that a term-of-art definition includes only federally recognized sovereign tribes. While the ISDA specifically defines ANCs as Indian Tribes, the ISDA also contains a “recognized-as-eligible” clause that Respondent argued excludes ANCs. The Court held that the ISDA specifically including, by name, ANCs makes them “Indian Tribes” regardless of federal recognition. As such, the Court rejected the term-of-art definition and found that “recognized” was a loaded term that did not match the historical and subsequent use in legislation. The Court held then that the ANCs are eligible to receive the funding from the CARES Act. REVERSED and REMANDED.