native american

U.S. Supreme Court says bankruptcy law overrides tribal sovereignty

  • Justice Jackson ruled that bankruptcy law treats tribes the same as other governments
  • Tribe argued it was neither a “foreign” nor “domestic” government
  • Dispute centered on a tribe’s effort to collect an overdue $1,100 payday loan

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that U.S. bankruptcy protections override a Native American tribe’s sovereign immunity, stopping the tribe’s effort to collect on an overdue payday loan taken out by one of its members who subsequently filed for bankruptcy.

In an 8-1 opinion written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court ruled that U.S. bankruptcy law applies to all creditors and “abrogates the sovereign immunity of any and every government,” including tribes. Tribal governments are not entitled to an exception solely because the U.S. bankruptcy code does not specifically mention Indian tribes when describing how it applies to governments, Jackson wrote.

The Wisconsin-based Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians had petitioned the Supreme Court after an appeals court rejected its effort to collect on a high-interest $1,100 payday loan extended to Brian Coughlin, a member of the tribe. Coughlin had borrowed the money from the tribe-owned business Lendgreen in 2019, but he filed for Chapter

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June 24, 2023 by ATTORNEY

Exeter attorney makes first-ever SCOTUS appearance: ‘Every lawyer’s dream’

For Exeter attorney Terrie Harman, appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court for the first time on April 24 was exhilarating.

It’s a great privilege and a rare opportunity to appear before SCOTUS, and that is not lost on Harman.

“It’s every lawyer’s dream to go to the U.S. Supreme Court,” she says. “It was incredibly exciting. I can hardly believe that I went.”

Terrie Harman holding the brief for the case of Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, et al v. Brian W. Coughlin, her first appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Terrie Harman holding the brief for the case of Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, et al v. Brian W. Coughlin, her first appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harman graduated from Franklin Pierce Law School in 1978 and began working at Pine Tree Legal Assistance in Bangor, Maine. There, she learned about bankruptcy law while representing indigents and developed a passion for the Bankruptcy Code. In the 1980s, she started her own firm, Harman Law Offices, where she was heavily involved in bankruptcy litigation and later became a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee.

Nowadays, her practice is mostly focused on probate litigation, estate planning, and general civil litigation, but it was one of her old bankruptcy cases that caught the eye of Boston lawyer, Richard Gottlieb, leading to a phone call that would place

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June 2, 2023 by ATTORNEY
May 2024
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