600 People Attend Yale's “Rebellious Lawyering Conference”

Students, lawyers and activists from across the country gathered at Yale University in New Haven recently for a conference on creative ways to fight for social change. As WNPR's Lauren Takores reports, one panel looked at the link between criminal justice and Native American tribal law.

About 600 people attended this year’s annual student-run “Rebellious Lawyering Conference” at Yale. Experts on “Criminal Justice in Indian Country” discussed the recently passed Tribal Law and Order Act, which gives greater sentencing power to tribal courts in certain cases.  

UConn law professor Bethany Berger described the tribal court systems that govern the Mohegan Tribe and Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nations in Connecticut. She said in criminal cases, tribal court systems prosecute only Indian-on-Indian crime.   

“They don’t have any jurisdiction over non-Indians, so the vast numbers of non-Indians going to tribal casinos are subject to state criminal justice.”

Other panels at the Yale conference focused on Fair Housing litigation, Cyberbulling and Teen Suicide, and the rise of for-profit prisons.

For WNPR, I’m Lauren Takores.