If Patent Cases Go to One Circuit Court, Why Shouldn't American Indian Law Cases?

The greater level of child abuse, domestic violence, and violence against women on American Indian reservations is horrifying. One of the recommendations of the nine-member Indian Law and Order Commission in "A Roadmap to Making Native America Safer" to improve that situation is to allow tribes to opt of currently existing law enforcement systems in favor of their own--along with the establishment of a "U.S. Court of Indian Appeals to which a defendant could appeal on the grounds that his 4th, 5th, 6th or 8th amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution had been violated," Indian Country Today Media Network reports. The report argues for an American Indian law-centric circuit court '"because it would establish a more consistent, uniform, and predictable body of case law dealing with civil rights issues and matters of Federal law interpretation arising in Indian country."'

The localism of such a system reflects the strand in American polity that favors smaller government and also would promote the sovereignty of tribes at the same time. Commission Chairman Troy Eid, a former U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, told Indian Country Media Network,  the commision's report '"is not to tell anyone what to do, but it's also to say, 'Local government works best; it's the American way.' It's emphatically a better way to prevent crime…. It's clear that many Native governments, even those with not a lot of means, want to and will sacrifice in order to put sovereignty into action through enforcing their own criminal laws."'