This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In a decision earlier this month removing Judge Bruce Jenkins from a case involving a dispute over Ute tribal boundaries, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the jurist had failed to enforce its mandates twice.
On Monday, the Denver-based court amended its decision to claim Jenkins had not enforced one of its mandates, rather than two.
Jenkins, who sits on the bench in Salt Lake City, had responded to his removal with a letter denying he had violated any mandate and correcting what he said was an error in the case history.
He said one supposed failure — a claim he had issued a one-line order that denied without explanation a request by the Ute Tribe for a preliminary injunction — was based on an incorrect factual premise in the case history recited by the appeals court.
Another judge issued that order in a different case that later was added to the long-running Ute case, Jenkins said, adding, "a perceived sin of a colleague ought not to be attributed to me as part of the justification for reassignment."
Jenkins also noted in his letter — which was addressed to Chief Judge David Nuffer of the U.S. District of Utah, whose responsibilities include assigning cases — that the other supposed failure was his ruling dismissing one of the defendants in the case. He said that although some might think the opinion was wrong, it did not violate a mandate.
The case, which focuses on the boundaries of "Indian country," has pitted the Ute Indian Tribe against Utah and its subdivisions. The Ute Tribe filed suit in 1975 alleging the state and several local governments were prosecuting American Indians for crimes they allegedly committed on tribal lands.
The litigation, which began in earnest in 1975 when the Ute Tribe filed its suit alleging the state and several local governments were prosecuting American Indians for crimes they allegedly committed on tribal lands, led to numerous appeals and rulings, including seven decisions from the 10th Circuit.
Jenkins inherited the case when he was appointed to the federal bench in 1978.
Twitter: @PamelaMansonSLC