Serving the ‘National Interest’?

dakoataccessprotest

Dakota Access Pipeline protest outside the White House, February 2017. In the legal case against the Dakota Access line, the Standing Rock Sioux argue that under binding treaty obligations to Native Americans, the federal government has a special responsibility to consider the impacts on Indian tribes, beyond the review mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act. So a decision in the case could set a precedent impacting the pending cases brought by native nations against the Keystone XL pipeline. Writing for Jurist website, Indian law scholar Monte Mills argues that Trump's State Department failed to consider this factor in its determination that the Keystone line is in the "national interest."

Photo: Victoria Pickering via Flickr

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