United States v. Navajo Nation, 537 U.S. 488, 20 (2003)

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Cite as: 537 U. S. 488 (2003)

Opinion of the Court

fiduciary duties to each Government function under that scheme, and that the Secretary acted in contravention of those duties by approving the 121/2 percent royalty contained in the amended Lease. See, e. g., Brief for Respondent 20, 30-38. We read the IMLA differently. As we see it, the statute and regulations at issue do not provide the requisite "substantive law" that "mandat[es] compensation by the Federal Government." Mitchell II, 463 U. S., at 218.

The IMLA and its implementing regulations impose no obligations resembling the detailed fiduciary responsibilities that Mitchell II found adequate to support a claim for money damages.11 The IMLA simply requires Secretarial approval before coal mining leases negotiated between Tribes and third parties become effective, 25 U. S. C. § 396a, and authorizes the Secretary generally to promulgate regulations governing mining operations, § 396d. Yet the dissent concludes that the IMLA imposes "one or more specific statutory obligations, as in Mitchell II, at the level of fiduciary duty whose breach is compensable in damages." Post, at 521. The endeavor to align this case with Mitchell II rather than Mitchell I, however valiant, falls short of the mark. Unlike the "elaborate" provisions before the Court in Mitchell II, 463 U. S., at 225, the IMLA and its regulations do not "give the Federal Government full responsibility to manage Indian resources . . . for the benefit of the Indians," id., at 224. The Secretary is neither assigned a comprehensive managerial role nor, at the time relevant here, expressly invested with responsibility to secure "the needs and best interests of the

11 We rule only on the Government's role in the coal leasing process under the IMLA. As earlier recounted, see supra, at 494, both the IMLA and its implementing regulations address oil and gas leases in considerably more detail than coal leases. Whether the Secretary has fiduciary or other obligations, enforceable in an action for money damages, with respect to oil and gas leases is not before us.

507

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