Legal Mobilization, Rights Claims, and Federal Indian Policy Reform

人们通常认为，寻求权利主张的少数群体在联邦法院比在立法程序中更成功。然而，美国印第安人，他们仍然是美国最贫穷的群体，75%以上的时间在最高法院败诉。因此，许多律师和倡导者鼓励印度国家寻求立法而不是司法解决方案，以解决困扰印度国家的问题，尽管人们实际上对美国印第安人和印度国家在政治进程中的表现知之甚少。这项研究开始填补我们知识中的这一空白，考察了美国565个印度民族如何、何时以及以何种成功的方式利用政治程序来修改法律。它关注的是印度民族吗？对1975年至2011年期间提出和颁布的相关法案的支持或反对，并决定这种支持或反对是否导致制定了有利于印度人的联邦政策。案例研究从定量研究的趋势中挑选出来，并使用档案数据和新的人种学研究进行开发，补充了立法听证会的初步量化分析，以更好地评估印度民族使用的各种立法策略及其成功。研究？S的研究结果将为法律学者、执业律师、法律改革者和立法倡导者提供更微妙和更全面的理解，了解代表性不足的社区可能如何利用各种制度和策略来影响对他们有利的法律和政策的制定。

It is often assumed that minority groups seeking to claim rights are more successful in federal courts than when working through the legislative process. Yet, American Indians, which remain the most impoverished group in the United States, lose in the Supreme Court over 75% of the time. As a result, many lawyers and advocates have encouraged Indian nations to pursue legislative rather than judicial solutions to problems plaguing Indian country, even though little is actually known about how American Indians and Indian nations fare in the political process. This study begins to fill this gap in our knowledge by examining how, when, and with what success the 565 Indian nations in the United States use the political process to change the law. It focuses on Indian nations? support or opposition for relevant bills introduced and enacted between 1975 and 2011, and determines whether such support or opposition led to the enactment of federal policies beneficial to Indians. Case studies, selected from trends in the quantitative study and developed using archival data and new ethnographic research, supplement the initial quantitative analysis of legislative hearings to better assess the variety of legislative strategies used by Indian nations and the success of those strategies.The study?s findings will provide legal scholars, practicing lawyers, law reformers, and legislative advocates with a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how underrepresented communities might use various institutions and strategies to influence the enactment of laws and policies favorable to them.