United States v. Jicarilla Apache Nation

What happened

The Jicarilla Apache Nation's reservation contains natural resources developed under statutes administered by the Interior Department. The United States holds the proceeds in trust for the Tribe.

The Tribe filed a breach-of-trust action in the Court of Federal Claims, seeking money damages for the government's alleged mismanagement of its trust funds. During discovery the Tribe moved to compel production of certain documents. The government released some but claimed attorney-client privilege for others.

The claims court held that communications about managing the trust funds fall within a "fiduciary exception" to the privilege. Under that exception, which courts have applied to common-law trusts, a trustee who obtains legal advice about running the trust cannot use the privilege against the beneficiaries. The Federal Circuit agreed that the government's trust relationship with tribes was similar enough to a private trust.

On June 13, 2011, the Supreme Court reversed. Justice Alito wrote that the exception "does not apply to the general trust relationship between the United States and the Indian tribes." The Court said the government's trust obligations to tribes "are established and governed by statute, not the common law," and that in carrying out its statutory duties the government acts "pursuant to its sovereign interest in the execution of federal law," not as a private trustee. Government attorneys, it noted, are paid from congressional appropriations at no cost to the Tribe. Justice Ginsburg concurred in the judgment, joined by Justice Breyer. Justice Sotomayor dissented.

Good to know. The ruling concerns access to privileged documents in a damages suit, not whether the trust funds were mismanaged.

Summarized with AI assistance from 3 sources and checked against their words; not yet reviewed by historians or by the nations. Report an error