Fortune Odend'hal, Jr., V
Headline: Court refuses to lift an appeals-court stay that paused federal district and tribal-court proceedings, leaving the pause in effect until the Supreme Court decides the case.
Holding: The Justice denied the application to dissolve the Ninth Circuit’s stay, leaving lower-court and tribal-court proceedings paused until the Supreme Court decides the case.
- Keeps federal district and tribal court proceedings paused until the Supreme Court decides.
- Means the stay will end automatically when this Court issues its decision.
- Avoids immediate separate review of the appeals court’s authority to issue the stay.
Summary
Background
The dispute involves insurance companies and a local school district on one side and the Crow Tribe of Indians on the other. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had issued a stay that paused all proceedings in the federal district court and in the Crow Tribal Court while the dispute works its way to the Supreme Court. The insurance companies and the school district asked a Justice of this Court to dissolve that stay, arguing the appeals court lacked power to issue it.
Reasoning
The Justice considered whether to lift the Ninth Circuit’s stay. He said the appeals court’s power to issue the stay was at least debatable, but he did not think four Members of the Court would want to take up that separate jurisdiction question in addition to deciding the main case. He also found that the equities did not favor dissolving the stay now. The Justice noted the Court is likely to decide the main case before the summer recess around July 1, and that the existing stay will expire by its own terms when this Court issues its decision. On that basis, the application to dissolve the stay was denied.
Real world impact
As a result, the halted lawsuits in the federal district court and the tribal court remain paused until this Court rules. The decision is procedural and temporary: it does not resolve the underlying legal dispute and could be changed when the Supreme Court issues its merits decision.
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