Op-ed: Healthcare law undermines sovereignty of Native tribes under Supremacy Clause of U.S. Constitution

Under the guise of Medicaid reform . . . the Trump administration is considering steps that would undermine the United States Constitution and upend hundreds of years of federal Indian law court precedent by dismantling federal recognition of tribal sovereignty, which acknowledges tribes’ right to govern themselves. They have denied requests by tribal leaders to grant natives exemption from new Medicaid work requirements by disregarding tribes’ distinct political status as native nations and changing their designation to a racial group only, thereby making such an exemption a potential illegal racial preference. This action breaches the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, that says that treaties with tribes are the supreme law of the land, and shirks the government’s legal responsibility to provide health care for tribal citizens.
Read the full article here: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/native-tribes-could-lose-federal-recognition-of…