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>
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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>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
normothermic:
(medicine) Having a normal body temperature.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/normothermic>
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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>