United States v. Lara was a 2004 United States Supreme Court case which held that both the United States and a Native American (Indian) tribe could prosecute an Indian for the same acts that constituted crimes in both jurisdictions. In the 1880s, Congress passed the Major Crimes Act, divesting tribes of criminal jurisdiction in regards to several felony crimes. In 1990, the Supreme Court ruled in Duro v. Reina that an Indian tribe did not have the authority to criminally try an Indian who was not a member of that tribe. The following year, Congress passed a law that stated that Indian tribes, due to their inherent sovereignty, had the authority to try non-member Indians for crimes committed within the tribe's territorial jurisdiction. The defendant, Billy Jo Lara, was charged for acts that were criminal offenses under both the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe's laws and the federal United States Code. Lara pleaded guilty to the tribal charges, but claimed double jeopardy against the federal charges. The Court (majority opinion writer Stephen Breyer pictured) held that the United States and the tribe were separate sovereigns, and therefore separate tribal and federal prosecutions did not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lara
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1830:
The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, the military force maintained by the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, was established by royal decree. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Netherlands_East_Indies_Army
1876:
Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_telephone
1959:
An anti-Chinese uprising erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as about 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace to prevent the 14th Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Tibetan_uprising
1968:
Vietnam War/Laotian Civil War: North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao forces overwhelmed the American, Laotian, Thai, and Hmong defenders of Lima Site 85. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lima_Site_85
2006:
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter attained orbit around Mars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
normothermic: (medicine) Having a normal body temperature. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/normothermic
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Let justice be done, though the world perish. --Ferdinand I https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ferdinand_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor