242
Opinion of the Court
Law Judge (ALJ) in the Department of the Interior found that interests devised to each of the respondents fell within the compass of amended § 207 and should therefore escheat to the tribal governments of the Fort Peck, Standing Rock, and Devils Lake Sioux Reservations. App. to Pet. for Cert. 27a-40a. Respondents, asserting the unconstitutionality of amended § 207, appealed the ALJ's order to the Department of the Interior Board of Indian Appeals. The Board, stating that it did not have jurisdiction to consider respondents' constitutional claim, dismissed the appeal.
Respondents then filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, naming the Secretary of the Interior as defendant, and alleging that amended § 207 of the ILCA violates the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The District Court agreed with respondents and granted their request for declaratory and injunctive relief. 857 F. Supp. 760, 766 (1994).
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed. 67 F. 3d 194 (1995). That court carefully inspected the 1984 revisions to § 207. Hewing closely to the reasoning of this Court in Irving, the Ninth Circuit determined that amended § 207 did not cure the deficiencies that rendered the original provision unconstitutional. In particular, the Ninth Circuit observed that amended § 207 "continue[d] to completely abolish one of the sticks in the bundle of rights [constituting property] for a class of Indian landowners." 67 F. 3d, at 200. The Ninth Circuit noted that "Congress may pursue other options to achieve consolidation of . . . fractional interests," including Government purchase of the land, condemnation for a public purpose attended by payment of just compensation, or regulation to impede further fractionation. Ibid. But amended § 207 could not stand, the Ninth Circuit concluded, for the provision remained "an extraordinary and impermissible regulation of Indian lands and effect[ed] an unconstitutional taking without just compensation." Ibid.
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