Supreme Court hears arguments on Indian tribal courts, False Claims Act

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF] in two cases Tuesday. In US v. Bryant [transcript, PDF] the court heard arguments [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] to determine whether a conviction in an Indian tribal court without counsel used to satisfy the predicate offense requirement of 18 USC § 117 [text], which criminalizes domestic assault when the defendant has at least two convictions in a federal, state or Indian tribal court, violates the Sixth Amendment [Cornell LLI materials]. The case arose [Oyez summary] after Michael Bryant, Jr. was convicted on two counts of domestic abuse under § 117 where the two predicate offenses were his convictions in Northern Cheyenne Tribal Court. Bryant moved for dismissal, claiming that the convictions violated the Fifth and Sixth Amendments because they were without counsel. The district court denied the motion, but the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] reversed.

http://www.jurist.org/paperchase/2016/04/supreme-court-hears-arguments-on-indian-tribal-courts-false-claims-act.php