Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior, et al. v. Marvin K. Youpee, SR., et al. (519 U.S. 234)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 21, 1997 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 519 U.S. 234 · 117 S. Ct. 727
- Decided
- January 21, 1997
- Term
- October Term 1996
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Ginsburg
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
- Constitutional ruling
- Federal law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, we consider for a second time the constitutionality of an escheat-to-tribe provision of the Indian Land Consolidation Act (ILCA). 96 Stat. 2519, as amended, 25 U. S. C. § 2206. Specifically, we address § 207 of the ILCA, as amended in 1984. Congress enacted the original provision in 1983 to ameliorate the extreme fractionation problem attending a century-old allotment policy that yielded multiple ownership of single parcels of Indian land. Pub. L. 97-459, §207, 96 Stat. 2519. Amended §207 provides that certain small interests in Indian lands will transfer — or “escheat” — to the tribe upon the death of the owner of the interest. Pub. L. 98-608, 98 Stat. 3173. In Hodel v. Irving, 481 U. S. 704 (1987), this Court held that the original version of §207 of the ILCA effected a taking of private property without just compensation, in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Id., at 716-718. We now hold that amended § 207 does not cure the constitutional deficiency this Court identified in the original version of §207. I In the late Nineteenth Century, Congress initiated an Indian land program that authorized the division of communal Indian property. Pursuant to this allotment policy, some Indian land was parcelled out to individual tribal members. Lands not allotted to individual Indians…
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