Kozinski ‘Blows a Gasket’ in Prosecution Thwarted by Indian Definition

A federal appeals court has overturned the assault conviction of a Montana man, saying he doesn’t qualify as an Indian under a statute giving jurisdiction to the federal courts.

The 2-1 ruling (PDF) by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. Cruz could raise jurisdictional problems for federal prosecutors in the region, the Los Angeles Times reports. R. Henry Branom Jr., the assistant federal defender who represented defendant Christopher Patrick Cruz, told the Times that his client cannot be retried in another venue because of Montana’s strict protections against double jeopardy.

The Volokh Conspiracy notes the decision by the San Francisco-based appeals court and advises readers “interested in some engaging opinion-writing” to check out the majority and dissenting opinions.

The blog focuses on the dissent by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, saying he “blows a gasket” in the opinion. It notes the chief judge’s final paragraph, calling it “classic Kozinski.”

“The majority engages in vigorous verbal callisthenics to reach a wholly counter-intuitive—and wrong—result,” Kozinski writes. “Along the way, it mucks up several already complex areas of the law and does grave injury to our plain error standard of review. I hasten to run in the other direction.”