Federal judge agrees to hear due process claim in American Indian banishment cas

US District Judge Robert Coyle has agreed to hear the case of two American Indian women who were banished from the Tachi-Yokut Tribe to determine whether the tribe's decision to banish the women violated their due process rights.  Courts have largely avoided such issues because of tribal sovereignty. The tribe, as an independent government, has the power to decide who belongs and who doesn't, but under the Indian Civil Rights Act , a plaintiff can appeal to federal court on due process grounds when they have been unjustly imprisoned.  Judge Coyle found that banishment restricts movement by forbidding the plaintiffs from visiting tribal lands and is akin to imprisonment. [more]