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Comment by wwright | Hacker News Reader

If we are going to truly treat this 1833 treaty as legally valid, does that mean that one party is entitled to compensation for 187 years of damages? Or is it more likely that we will somehow hand-wave it away and just find a way to retroactively undo the treaty?

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I was thinking the same thing, if what the court was saying was that the land has always been a reservation, then, uh, get ready for the mother of all tax refunds.

Court decisions in the US (As in any other country in the world) are made in the context of the current social climate.

The current American social climate is not ready, willing, or interested in meaningful reparations. I doubt the tribe will be successful in suing for any damages.

Trying would be dangerous, a lot of people go from who cares about them to why are you taking my money for them.

> If we are going to truly treat this 1833 treaty as legally valid

If? SCOTUS literally just said it's valid. Today.

As far as what's going to happen, presumably the state legislature, congress, and the Tribal government(s) are going to come to some kind of deal. I'm no expert. I'm just reacting to the vaguely racist paranoia in the headline that has people freaking out that they'll suddenly be Ruled by Indians.

I said _treat_ it as valid. There are many valid laws we don't treat as valid (such as international ones).

It was a genuine question though; I was wondering if someone more knowledgeable than I knew how it would be handled :)

>There are many valid laws we don't treat as valid

Including several on the bill of rights.

I agree 100% with your point but would just make one change to the wording. The Bill of Rights isn't made up of laws.

Well, they have binding legal force. They are Law. So, a kind of Super Law.

They are Amendments that enshrine rights and limit the Federal Government. Amendments take more than a simple majority to pass, which is all a law takes.

International Laws should not be expected to have juirisdiction inside of the United States.

That is certainly the opinion of the United States ;) (I'm referring to the laws being ignored by the US government itself, to be clear)

Ah, yes. I see. There is no doubt that the Federal Government ignores a number of Federal laws. More importantly, I believe, they ignore the US Constitution and Amendments.

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