US Supreme Court gavel falls on tribal rights
Opinion The US Supreme Court, amid decisions radically expanding gun rights and removing a woman's constitutional right to abortion, has toppled almost 200 years of law protecting Native American tribal independence and sovereignty. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled individual US states have authority over tribes within their borders. In a 5-4 decision defining the scope of the 2020 McGirt ruling, Justice Brett Kavanaugh writes: "The court holds that Indian country within a state's territory is part of a state, not separate from a state. The decision specifically had to do with the issue of state jurisdiction of criminal law on tribal lands, but comes with massive ramifications. Simply put, it means, in the 20 states where tribal reservations exist, US state law now supersedes Indigenous law. In the United…