Delaware Tribal Business Committee v. Weeks

The Delaware Indians were historically a single tribe, but they eventually split into four groups: the Cherokee, Absentee, Munsee, and Kansas Delawares. The Cherokee and Absentee were federally recognized Indian tribes. In 1866, the Kansas Delawares accepted individual parcels of land and United States citizenship from the government, and therefore, the descendants of the Kansas Delawares were no longer members of a federally recognized tribe. The Indian Claims Commission (the commission) awarded a judgment to the descendants of the Delawares to compensate the Delaware tribe for the government’s breach of a treaty, but under Congress’s distribution plan, the award was to be distributed only to the Cherokee and Absentee descendants (the award recipients), as members of the only two federally recognized tribes. Weeks (plaintiff) filed suit in a federal district court on behalf of the Kansas Delawares against the secretary of the interior (the secretary) (defendant) and the award recipients (defendants), alleging that the Kansas Delawares’ exclusion from distribution of the judgment award denied them equal protection under the Due Process Clause. The district court agreed, and the secretary and the award recipients appealed. The award recipients argued that Congress had absolute, or plenary, power to decide Indian affairs and therefore that Congress’s decision was not subject to judicial scrutiny. The secretary argued that Congress’s plenary power was not absolute and may be subject to judicial scrutiny. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.