CSAC is urging the United States Supreme Court to review a case out of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding Department of Interior regulations related to taking tribal land into trust.  The Department’s regulations chip away at the Carcieri v. Salazar opinion, in which the Court held that the Secretary of Interior’s authority to take land into trust on behalf of “persons of Indian descent who are members of any recognized Indian tribe now under Federal jurisdiction” unambiguously refers to a tribe “under federal jurisdiction” on June 1, 1934, rather than a tribe “under federal jurisdiction” at the time the Secretary sought to take the land into trust.  The regulations at issue say that “recognition” of a tribe (unlike jurisdiction) need not have necessarily existed in 1934, but that subsequent “recognition” is sufficient.  CSAC’s amicus brief was drafted by Christopher Skinnell at Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni LLP in San Rafael.