Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. United States (577 U.S. 250)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 25, 2016 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 577 U.S. 250 · 136 S. Ct. 750
- Docket
- No. 14-510
- Argued
- December 1, 2015
- Decided
- January 25, 2016
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Alito
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, Justice Thomas, Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Alito (wrote), Justice Sotomayor, Justice Kagan
Oral argument transcript and advocates · Opinion on Justia
Opinion excerpt
Justice ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioner Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (Tribe) seeks equitable tolling to preserve contract claims not timely presented to a federal contracting officer. Because the Tribe cannot establish extraordinary circumstances that stood in the way of timely filing, we hold that equitable tolling does not apply. I Congress enacted the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA), Pub. L. 93-638, 88 Stat. 2203, 25 U.S.C. § 450 et seq., in 1975 to help Indian tribes assume responsibility for aid programs that benefit their members. Under the ISDA, tribes may enter into "self-determination contracts" with federal agencies to take control of a variety of federally funded programs. § 450f. A contracting tribe is eligible to receive the amount of money that the Government would have otherwise spent on the program, see § 450j-1(a)(1), as well as reimbursement for reasonable "contract support costs," which include administrative and overhead costs associated with carrying out the contracted programs, §§ 450j-1(a)(2), (3), (5). In 1988, Congress amended the ISDA to apply the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 (CDA), 41 U.S.C. § 7101 et seq., to disputes arising under the ISDA. See 25 U.S.C. § 450m-1(d) ; Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act Amendments of 1988, § 206(2), 102 Stat. 2295. As part of its…
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