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On November 10, Gabe Galanda will receive the Thurgood Marshall Award from Mothers for Police Accountability, a group that has worked to improve the police and reduce gun violence in Seattle since 1990.
Gabe will be honored for his “tireless work” on behalf of Indigenous Americans and others affected by police violence.
Nooksack federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit homes
As HUD reported in 2019, the unique circumstances of Indian country—“remoteness, lack of infrastructure, and complex legal and other constraints related to land ownership”—make home ownership very difficult. With Indigenous home ownership rates drastically below national averages, the federal government has endeavored to help bring home buyership opportunities to Indian country.
In 2001, Congress amended the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) provision of the Internal Revenue Code (Section 42) to make it an eventual home ownership program. In the years that followed, the promise of home ownership was extended to tribal members throughout Indian country.
Through the IRS and state housing finance agencies, competitive and lucrative federal income tax credits have been granted to investors like Florida's Raymond James. In exchange, tax credit investors—which hold title to the tribal LIHTC homes during a 15-30 year tax credit compliance period—are supposed to develop rent-to-own “transfer plans” for tribal homebuyers.
The tax credit investors are also supposed to make equity reserve account payments for tribal members renting to own the homes. After a home is in the LIHTC program for at lest 15 years, those monies are supposed to be applied as equity towards the home, allowing a tenant-homebuyer to receive a deed to the home and achieve the American dream of home ownership.
But two decades later, the promise of tribal member LIHTC home ownership has not been widely, if at all, realized in Indian country.
Take Nooksack, for example, where starting in 2006 Raymond James acquired the tax credits for at least three LIHTC projects predicated upon eventual tribal member home ownership.
The Washington State Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC)—formed by the State Legislature in 1983 to catalyze low income housing opportunity in rural Washington—awarded highly competitive and lucrative LIHTCs for each Nooksack low income housing project. Each award of tax credits was specifically based on a 15-year home ownership promise.
For the Nooksack LIHTC homes in rural Whatcom County, though, no home ownership “transfer plan” was ever created by the Tribe or Raymond James, or subject to compliance monitoring or regulatory enforcement by WSHFC. According to news reporter Chris Aadland:
When the housing units were built, the intent was to sell them to tenants ‘in good standing’ after 15 years, said [WSHFC] spokeswoman Margret Graham. But a rent-to-own plan was never finalized, she said.
State law obligates WSHFC to impose a transfer plan and monitor its progress every five years, but the agency never did its job.
Seven low income households at Nooksack now face eviction from their homes without due process or just compensation, as reported by Crosscut. As Luna Reyna explains:
By 2021, most of the seven LIHTC homes had been in the program at least 15 years, some much longer, yet none of the heads of households received deeds to the homes.
WSHFC now confesses that it has not approved a single tribal home buyership plan in Washington state. Not one. That means tribal members are not getting deeds to homes, as Congress intended.
Nooksack households facing eviction
Meanwhile Raymond James never made the required equity reserve account payments at Nooksack over the 15-year compliance period. According to an astonishing WSHFC finding:
Accounts were not funded based on a determination by the tax credit investor that doing so would increase [its] tax liability.
In other words, over the 15 years when Raymond James used LIHTCs to reduce the corporate income taxes it pays to the federal government, the company decided not to fund tribal member equity reserve accounts in order to further reduce its federal income tax liability.
Despite finding the Nooksack LIHTC program in noncompliance with federal and state LIHTC laws on March 15, 2022, WSHFC has demurred, with the state agency’s Executive Director simply citing “tribal sovereignty.” Since the IRS defers to WSHFC to enforce applicable LIHTC covenants, the federal government has thus far also looked away from the apparent federal tax fraud.
This reality is decidedly not what Congress or the Washington State Legislature intended. As things stand in Washington state, the tribal LIHTC program is a shell game.
Gabriel Galanda is an Indigenous human rights rights lawyer in Seattle and the managing lawyer of Galanda Broadman, PLLC.
Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights firm with nine lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington, and Bend, Oregon, seeks to add two experienced lawyers to its growing practice in the firm’s Seattle office: a litigation associate and a tribal law associate.
Galanda Broadman is an Indigenous owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal and tribal citizen legal rights and tribal business interests. The firm represents tribal governments, businesses, and citizens in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, land rights, cultural property protection, taxation, commerce, gaming, serious/catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, disenrollment defense, and Indigenous human/civil rights.
The firm seeks lawyers who are deeply committed to representing Indigenous interests, who is state bar licensed, preferably in Washington State; and who have civil litigation or a judicial clerk experience. A litigation associate should have at least three years of experience. A tribal law associate should have least two years of experience.
Proven motion and civil rules practice, if not trial, experience, and the ability to self-direct are critical. Impeccable writing and research skills; critical and audacious thinking; strong oral advocacy; tremendous work ethic; tenacity; and sound ethics are required.
Salary DOE.
Qualified applicants should submit a cover letter tailored to this announcement, as well as a résumé, writing sample, transcript, and list of at least three educational and professional references, to Alice Hall, the firm’s Office Manager, at alice@galandabroadman.com.
Gabe Galanda’s peers have named him to Best Lawyers in America for the sixteenth consecutive year.
Gabe is the managing lawyer at Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights law firm headquartered in Seattle. He has also been dubbed a Super Lawyer by his peers from 2013 to 2022.
The American Bar Association named Gabe a Difference Maker in 2012 and recognized him with the Spirit of Excellence Award this year.
The Washington State Bar Association honored him with the Excellence in Diversity Award in 2014. The University Arizona College of Law awarded him the Professional Achievement Award and Western Washington University named him a Distinguished Alumnus, in 2018.
His practice focuses on complex, multi-party litigation and crisis management, representing Indigenous nations, businesses and citizens.
Gabe is skilled at defending Indigenous nations and business against legal attack by governmental or private parties, as well advocating for the human rights of Indigenous citizens. He advocates against tribal disenrollment and other Indigenous human rights abuse. He also assists Indigenous clients with transactions and strategy related to various economic diversification initiatives.
Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights firm with nine lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington, and Bend, Oregon, seeks to add two experienced litigation associates to its growing practice in the firm’s Seattle office.
Galanda Broadman is an Indigenous owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal and tribal citizen legal rights and tribal business interests. The firm represents tribal governments, businesses, and citizens in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, land rights, cultural property protection, taxation, commerce, gaming, serious/catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, disenrollment defense, and Indigenous human/civil rights.
The firm seeks lawyers who are deeply committed to representing Indigenous interests, who is state bar licensed, preferably in Washington State; and who have civil litigation or a judicial clerk experience. A senior litigation associate should have at least five years of experience. An associate should have at two to five years of experience.
Proven motion and civil rules practice, if not trial, experience, and the ability to self-direct are critical. Impeccable writing and research skills; critical and audacious thinking; strong oral advocacy; tremendous work ethic; tenacity; and sound ethics are required.
Salary DOE.
Qualified applicants should submit a cover letter tailored to this announcement, as well as a résumé, writing sample, transcript, and list of at least three educational and professional references, to Alice Hall, the firm’s Office Manager, at alice@galandabroadman.com.
Applications directed elsewhere will not be considered.
For more information about Galanda Broadman, visit galandabroadman.com.
Gabe Galanda joins Kimberlé Crenshaw, Rob Williams, and other Critical Race Theory pioneers for the Teaching Truth to Power: Critical Race Theory Summer School, which is taking place online July 18-22.
Crenshaw's African American Policy Forum is hosting its third Critical Race Theory Summer School and for the first time will have a full week of classes focused on Indigenous peoples' issues and the intersections with Critical Race Theory and Practice.
Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar on civil rights, Critical Race Theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. In addition to her position at Columbia Law School, she is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Williams is also a pioneering scholar on Critical Race Theory, particularly its intersection with federal Indian law. He organized the “Indigeneity & Decolonization” channel at Crenshaw’s request, and invited Gabe to participate.
Gabe will speak Thursday:
Thursday, July 21: Gabe Galanda, "Tribal Neocolonialism: Disenrollment, Enrollment Moratoria & Per-Capitalism": This class will explore modern tribal identity crises, not notably the disenrollment “epidemic” and its imperialist causes and the potential cures available through renewed Indigenous kinship traditions. The class will examine the history of the colonial and federal laws and systems that define Indigenous peoples and “who belongs” to an Indian tribe, as well as the neo-colonial deployment of disenrollment and enrollment moratoria by contemporary tribal politicians and the challenges and opportunities at the intersections of traditional Indigenous knowledge, federal Indian and tribal law, and international human rights law.
Law-related CLE reading: Gabe Galanda, “Curing the Tribal Disenrollment Epidemic: In Search of a Remedy,” 57 Ariz. Law Rev. 383 (2015), and “Tribal nationhood requires citizen civil rights protection,” available at: https://indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/tribal-nationhood-requires-citizen-civil-rights-protection.
Scholarships are available to attend and CLE is available for some of the sessions. To register and learn more visit: https://web.cvent.com/event/cee3600f-6c48-4b56-9767-0a468698db14/summary
States now have concurrent authority to prosecute non-Indians for crimes against Indians in Indian Country.
Prior to today’s ruling, on many reservations, only the federal government could. Considering that this was already the state of the law with “victimless” crimes under United States v. McBratney, 104 U.S. 621 (1881), and other tribes are already subject to state criminal jurisdiction by operation of other federal statutes, today’s decision will not change the landscape for every tribe.
Still, this is a massive expansion of state authority in tribal territory. The Court’s approval of state incursions into Indian Country necessarily diminishes tribal sovereignty.
A few other observations:
Justice Kavanaugh’s framing of tribal jurisdictions as state “territory” does not bode well for tribal sovereignty before the Court. Plan to see cites to this in future taxation, civil jurisdiction, and other cases.
Justice Gorsuch’s penchant for historical analysis couldn’t persuade any of the originalists to join him.
Brackeen may give us our next opportunity to see if history will move Gorsuch and another justice to protect tribal interests. I doubt it will.
The Court did not reverse McGirt v. Oklahoma. Given the Court’s fleeting interest in stare decisis, I suppose this is notable. Especially since Oklahoma sought to dispense with the 2020 case.
For Tribes in states like Oregon where Tribal police can exercise state law enforcement authority, Tribes have an additional charging route for non-Indian on Indian crimes: state court.
Either Justice Kavanaugh does not know how to apply Bracker or I don’t. Today was the day I learned that the Bracker balancing test has any relevance in the criminal context.
Anthony Broadman is a partner at Galanda Broadman PLLC: anthony@galandabroadman.com
Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights firm with nine lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington, and Bend, Oregon, seeks to add two experienced litigation associates to its growing practice in the firm’s Seattle office.
Galanda Broadman is an Indigenous owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal and tribal citizen legal rights and tribal business interests. The firm represents tribal governments, businesses, and citizens in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, land rights, cultural property protection, taxation, commerce, gaming, serious/catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, disenrollment defense, and Indigenous human/civil rights.
The firm seeks lawyers who are deeply committed to representing Indigenous interests, who is state bar licensed, preferably in Washington State; and who have civil litigation or a judicial clerk experience. A senior litigation associate should have at least five years of experience. An associate should have at two to five years of experience.
Proven motion and civil rules practice, if not trial, experience, and the ability to self-direct are critical. Impeccable writing and research skills; critical and audacious thinking; strong oral advocacy; tremendous work ethic; tenacity; and sound ethics are required.
Salary DOE.
Qualified applicants should submit a cover letter tailored to this announcement, as well as a résumé, writing sample, transcript, and list of at least three educational and professional references, to Alice Hall, the firm’s Office Manager, at alice@galandabroadman.com.
Applications directed elsewhere will not be considered.
For more information about Galanda Broadman, visit galandabroadman.com.
On June 23, 2022, the United States Supreme Court determined in Vega v. Tekoh that Miranda warnings—notification by police to persons in custody of their rights under the Fifth Amendment to protection from self-incrimination and to an attorney—are not a constitutional right. Rather, the Court said the warnings are required under what amounts to a mere “prophylactic rule” designed to safeguard constitutional rights. The opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, went on to state that though the Miranda warnings rule is, in fact, a federal law with constitutional underpinnings, it is not a federal law for purposes of bringing private civil suits under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
That’s right, according to Justice Alito’s majority opinion, a federal law is not a federal law, at least not for the purposes of police accountability.
Put simply, Vega holds that a person cannot sue police officers under federal civil rights laws for failing to provide Miranda warnings. But there is a reason protection against self-incrimination is enshrined in our Constitution. And there is a reason Miranda warnings are required as part of that protection. False confessions are real. Intimidation and coercion during interrogations are real. Simply saying the wrong thing and having it misinterpreted is real. Bias is very real. People can be, and are, deprived of their liberty because they do not understand their right to be protected against self-incrimination, or their right to have an attorney present. Some of these people spend years in jail awaiting trial.
Can it really be the case that there is no remedy for a person who shows that an officer failed to provide Miranda warnings, and that officer’s failure to follow federal law caused a deprivation of the person’s constitutional rights, up to and including the loss of their liberty?
Hopefully not. In Mancini v. City of Tacoma, the Washington State Supreme Court held that under a theory of general negligence, “police executing a search warrant owe the same duty of reasonable care that they owe when discharging other duties.” 196 Wash.2d 864, 880 (2021). In the opinion, the Court mentioned that while it was unnecessary for the purposes of that case to analyze whether the plaintiff could recover separately for a claim of “negligent police investigation,” the Court had “never addressed an actual negligent investigation claim” in the context of a police misconduct case. Id. at 878, n.7. The Court explained it had only visited the subject once in the context of child abuse investigations, concluding that there was indeed a duty for state actors to avoid negligence. Id. (citing Babcock v. State, 116 Wash.2d 596 (1991)). Viewing Mancini in light of Vega, it appears that our State Supreme Court left the door open for a negligence claim—or even a negligent investigation claim—when, for example, an officer’s duty to provide a Miranda warning is breached.
Legislation, of course, is another route. Currently, there is no Washington statute that lays out a cause of action specific to negligent police investigation. This is likely because state legislatures often shrink from creating duplicative causes of action. That a private right of action against state actors for constitutional violations stemming from police investigations exists under § 1983 was one justification for not establishing a separate state cause of action. That justification is thin post-Vega.
With the Vega decision, the United States Supreme Court has now repeatedly gutted the ability of citizens to sue police officers under § 1983 for bad acts or negligence during investigations, citing the role of legislative bodies to create causes of action. See, e.g., Egbert v. Boule (rejecting the Petitioners’ § 1983 claims for excessive force and retaliation during an investigation while deferring to Congress to create what the Court believed was “a new cause of action”). Washington’s Supreme Court or Legislature should formally recognize a private right of action for negligent investigation that would encompass Miranda warning violations. Our citizens in Washington State need an avenue to hold police and other law enforcement officers accountable for their investigative acts.
Corinne Sebren is an Associate at Galanda Broadman. Corinne’s civil rights practice focuses on Indigenous rights, wrongful incarceration, and malicious prosecution.
Galanda Broadman, PLLC, an Indigenous rights firm with nine lawyers and offices in Seattle and Yakima, Washington, and Bend, Oregon, seeks to add an experienced paralegal/litigation assistant to our growing civil rights practice in Seattle.
Galanda Broadman is an Indigenous owned firm dedicated to advancing tribal and tribal citizen legal rights and tribal business interests. The firm represents tribal governments, businesses, and citizens in critical litigation, business and regulatory matters, especially in the areas of Treaty rights, tribal sovereignty, land rights, cultural property protection, taxation, commerce, gaming, serious/catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, disenrollment defense, and Indigenous human/civil rights.
The firm seeks an individual with solid litigation and case management experience and proven abilities under pressure, and who exhibits the following attributes: attention to detail; solid writing and organization; tech savvy; critical, proactive and creative thinking; strong work ethic; and sound ethics and morals. The position will also support office managerial and administrative efforts.
Salary DOE (at least $90,000). Benefits include health care, 80 hours of PTO/year (in addition to most federal holidays), and remote work for at least four days per week.
Qualified applicants should submit a cover letter tailored to this announcement, as well as a resume, and list of a least three educational and professional references, to Alice Hall, the firm’s Office Manager, at alice@galandabroadman.com, as soon as possible.
Closes: When Filled
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