Indian trust case settlement likely, says McCain News
Indian trust case settlement likely, says McCain

[JURIST] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs [official website], said Wednesday he expects a settlement in the Corbell v. Norton lawsuit [plaintiffs website] brought by American Indians for back trust royalties owed to them by the US government. But he said the $27.5 billion figure sought is too high, doubting Congress would authorize such a payout. The suit claims the US Department of the Interior [official website] mismanaged resource royalty claims related to Indian lands dating back to 1887. The suit was filed in 1996, and the court has held both Clinton-era Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt and current Secretary Gale Norton in contempt in connection with problems related to government record-keeping. It made news again earlier this week after the federal judge presiding in the case slammed the Interior Department [JURIST report] for management lapses and ordered it to tell Indian trust claimants that it may have provided inaccurate information to them. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.