NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 11, 2010
CONTACT: ERIKA MARZORATI
517/432-6848, marzorat@law.msu.edu
Professor Fletcher Presents Dillon Lecture on Indian Law at University of South Dakota
East Lansing, MI — Michigan State University College of Law Professor Matthew L.M. Fletcher recently presented the University of South Dakota School of Law's Dillon Lecture, "Rebooting Indian Law in the Supreme Court."
The lecture was presented in conjunction with two of the school's major events–its biennial Native American Law Students Association Indian Law Symposium and the annual South Dakota Law Review scholarly symposium. The Dillon Lecture is named for Charles Hall Dillon, a South Dakota lawyer, statesman, and state Supreme Court justice who died in 1929.
The symposium marked the 20th anniversary of Employment Division v. Smith, in which the U.S. Supreme Court examined the intersection of law and religious liberty in a case concerning Native American Church members' ceremonial use of peyote. Smith is a leading interpretation of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Professor Fletcher, Director of the MSU Law Indigenous Law and Policy Center, is a nationally recognized scholar in the area of Supreme Court Indian law jurisprudence. He co-authored the 6th edition of the leading casebook on federal Indian law, and wrote the first-ever casebook for law students on tribal law; both are due for publication later this year. Professor Fletcher serves as Chief Justice of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Supreme Court, appellate judge for the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the Hoopa Valley Tribe, and consultant to the Seneca Nation of Indians Court of Appeals. For more information, visit his profile.
Michigan State University College of Law is a leading institution of legal education with a long history of creating practice-ready attorneys. As one of only a few private law schools affiliated with a major research university, MSU Law offers comprehensive interdisciplinary opportunities combined with a personalized legal education. After 100 years as a private and independent Law College, the affiliation with MSU has put the Law College on an upward trajectory of national and international reputation and reach. MSU Law professors are gifted teachers and distinguished scholars, its curriculum rigorous and challenging, and its facility equipped with the latest resources–all affirming MSU Law's commitment to educating 21st-century lawyers.
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