Jessica Tavares v. Gene Whitehouse

Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge WARDLAW

OPINION

McKEOWN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal tests the limits of federal court jurisdiction to hear a habeas petition brought under the Indian Civil Rights Act (“ICRA”), 25 U.S.C. §§ 1301-1303, where the underlying claim arises not from an actual detention or imprisonment, but instead from a tribe’s temporary exclusion of its own members.1

Congress enacted the ICRA in 1968 in response to a “long line” of federal court decisions exempting Indian tribes from constitutional restraints. See Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law § 1.07, at 97…