South Dakota high court takes up case lawyer says could destroy tribal sovereign immunity [View all]
PIERRE — A former school principal is alleging he was wrongfully terminated from his job in a South Dakota Supreme Court case that one lawyer said could be an “absolute destruction” of tribal nations’ sovereign immunity.
The Supreme Court Tuesday heard oral arguments for an appeal on a lower court’s August decision to dismiss Timothy Stathis v. Marty Indian School. Marty Indian School, located on the Yankton Reservation in southeast South Dakota, hired Stathis in May 2017, then fired him months before his contract ended in June 2018.
According to court documents, First Circuit Court Judge Bruce Anderson dismissed the case based on tribal sovereign immunity and immunity of tribal officials and employees, a doctrine reiterated in state and federal court decisions stating that sovereign tribal nations have the right to make and uphold their own laws.
But Stathis’ lawyer, James Taylor of Mitchell, is arguing that “tribal immunity as a doctrine should be abandoned or narrowed.”
Read more: https://www.aberdeennews.com/news/sd-high-court-takes-up-case-lawyer-says-could-destroy/article_30b739ae-83d8-5183-8732-451dd828462a.html
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