UNM Law School professors John LaVelle and Barbara Creel spoke to a large audience of students at Columbia Law School about their amicus brief for United States v. Bryant.
Two faculty members in the Law and Indigenous Peoples Program at the University of New Mexico Law School combined their expertise in Indian law to write an amicus brief that has received national attention.
Professor John LaVelle is a Dickason Professor of Law at UNM School of Law, and has served on the executive editorial board of Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the comprehensive legal treatise in the field of Indian law. His research and teaching agenda centers on the historic and contemporary development of the Supreme Court's doctrines of tribal, federal, and state jurisdiction in Indian country.
Creel and LaVelle with Columbia NALSA representatives and Columbia Law Professor Shawn Watts (third from left).
On Wednesday, April 20, Creel and LaVelle spoke about the Bryant case and their amicus brief at Columbia Law School in New York City.
They were invited by Columbia Professor Shawn Watts and Columbia’s chapter of the Native American Law Student Association (NALSA).
Creel and LaVelle were met with a large audience of students interested in the civil rights and Indian law issues implicated in the case.
Creel shared her background in criminal defense advocacy and explained the history of the right to counsel for Indians.
LaVelle elaborated further on Indian law cases that serve as the backdrop for this complex area of constitutional law and congressional policy.