Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Lawyer wants Supreme Court to hear eagle case A Northern Arapaho man who killed an eagle for use in his tribe's Sun Dance is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court order that he must stand trial on a criminal charge. Winslow Friday asked the Supreme Court to review his case last month. He wants the court to overturn a ruling that a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver issued in May stating that he must stand trial. Friday's request is the latest turn in a long-running legal dispute over the rights of American Indians to kill eagles for religious purposes. The latest challenge, however, centers on whether it's appropriate for federal appeals courts to second-guess federal district judges on the factual issues of a case. The appeals court ruling in may overruled a decision that U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming wrote in 2006 that dismissed the criminal charge against Friday. In throwing out the charge against Friday, Downes ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had shown "callous indifference" to the religious beliefs of American Indians. Downes ruled that the federal agency wouldn't have given Friday a permit to kill the eagle even if he had applied for one....

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