Cloverdale Rancheria of Pomo Indians v. Jewell

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiffs-Appellants are five members of the Cloverdale Ranchería of Porno Indians of California (“the Tribe”) who seek to compel Defendants-Appellees, the Department of Interior and its officials (“the Department”), to recognize them as the Tribe’s leadership and negotiate self-determination contracts with them. The district court dismissed both of Plaintiffs-Appellants’ complaints for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and lack of standing. We review these dismissals de novo, Rhoades v. Avon Prods., Inc., 504 F.3d 1151, 1156 (9th Cir.2007), and we affirm.

This case comes to us after years of dispute about the governance of the Tribe following its restoration to federally recognized status. This history is known to the parties, and we will not recite it here. Suffice it to say that over the years various factions of the Tribe have asked the Department to recognize them as the Tribe’s duly-elected government. Plaintiffs-Appellants have failed to show why the federal courts can now compel the Department to intervene in this long-running intra-tribal dispute.

Plaintiffs-Appellants have not identified a discrete, non-discretionary duty sufficient to furnish the…