Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation

What happened

Title V of the CARES Act, passed in response to COVID-19, allocated $8 billion to "Tribal governments" to compensate for unbudgeted expenditures. The question was whether Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) could receive any of it.

The Act defines a tribal government by reference to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA). ISDA defines an "Indian tribe" to include "any Alaska Native village or regional or village corporation as defined in or established pursuant to" the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), "which is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians."

The Treasury Department decided that ANCs were eligible, even though ANCs are not federally recognized tribes, meaning tribes with which the United States has a government-to-government relationship. A number of federally recognized tribes sued. The district court sided with Treasury and the ANCs, but the D.C. Circuit reversed.

On June 25, 2021, the Supreme Court reversed that ruling. Justice Sotomayor wrote that ANCs are "established pursuant to" ANCSA and thereby "recognized as eligible" for its benefits. ANCSA, the Court noted, made ANCs eligible to select tens of millions of acres of land and receive hundreds of millions of tax-exempt dollars. The Court rejected the tribes' argument that the phrase means "federally recognized tribe." Justice Gorsuch dissented, joined by Justices Thomas and Kagan.

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