Blatchford v. Native Village of Noatak

Blatchford v. Native Village of Noatak, 501 U.S. 775 (1991), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Eleventh Amendment prevents tribes from filing lawsuits against the United States because they are not party to the Constitution; therefore, the United States must sue itself as a trustee for the tribe under United States v. Minnesota.^[1][2]

Blatchford v. Native Village of Noatak
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided June 24, 1991
Full case name	Blatchford v. Native Village of Noatak
Citations	501 U.S. 775 (more)
Case history
Subsequent	38 F.3d 1505
Holding
The Eleventh Amendment prevents tribes from filing lawsuits against the United States because they are not party to the Constitution; therefore, the United States must sue itself as a trustee for the tribe under United States v. Minnesota.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · John P. Stevens Sandra Day O'Connor · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter
Case opinions
Majority	Scalia
Concurrence	Blackmun, joined by Marshall, Stevens

Background

Alaska Native villages brought suit against Edgar Blatchford, in his capacity as the Commissioner of Alaska's Department of Community and Regional Affairs, seeking an order requiring payment to them of money allegedly owed under a state revenue-sharing statute. The federal District Court dismissed the suit as violating the Eleventh Amendment. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, first on the ground that 28 U.S.C. § 1362 constituted a congressional abrogation of Eleventh Amendment immunity, and then, upon reconsideration, on the ground that Alaska had no immunity against suits by Native tribes.

Opinion of the court

The Supreme Court issued an opinion on June 24, 1991.^[1]

Criticism

Blatchford was out of step with most prior Eleventh Amendment jurisprudence, which said sovereign immunity under the Amendment only applied to situations mentioned directly in its text.^[3]