O’Melveny Represents Havasupai Tribe in Amicus to Assure Adequate Education For Tribal Children

An O’Melveny team represented the Havasupai Tribe in an amicus brief that helped secure, on behalf of tribal schoolchildren, a resounding education-based victory at the Ninth Circuit. The Havasupai Tribe, which has just one school, lacks enough textbooks for the students attending that school and does not even teach all required subjects. 

O’Melveny’s brief helped convince the Ninth Circuit that the federal government failed to provide the tribal children with an adequate education. Reversing a federal court's summary judgment award, the Ninth Circuit found that the Bureau of Indian Education, the US Department of the Interior, and several agency officials failed to provide required educational services to students at Havasupai Elementary School in Arizona, which serves the Havasupai Indian Reservation.