On November 27, 2017 the Supreme Court denied certiorari (review) of a lower court decision in Upstate Citizens for Equality v. United States. Justice Clarence Thomas issued a dissenting opinion in which he argued that his colleagues should have taken the case. Justice Thomas twice cited (i.e., explicitly relied on) Rob’s 2008 research article on the Indian Commerce Clause.

These two citations mark the 18th and 19th times since 2013 that Supreme Court justices have cited Rob’s articles. (The citations appeared in 6 different cases.) Besides Justice Thomas, Rob’s articles have been relied on by the late Antonin Scalia and by Chief Justice Roberts.

The Constitution’s Indian Commerce Clause reads “The Congress shall have Power . . . to regulate Commerce . . . with the Indian tribes.” Congress, with the support of the courts, claims those words give Congress “plenary” (unlimited) authority to govern Indian affairs without participation by the states—and even without participation by the President-and-Senate acting under the Treaty Power.

Justice Thomas has long doubted that this is the correct reading of the Indian Commerce Clause, and Rob’s research, published in the 2008 article, showed convincingly that Justice Thomas was right to be skeptical. The article was entitled The Original  Understanding of the Indian Commerce Clause, and it is available here.

In the Upstate Citizens case, the Secretary of the Interior, acting under a congressional statute supposedly authorized by the Indian Commerce Clause, seized jurisdiction over 13,000 acres in central New York State. The effect was to largely muscle out state and local authorities and to damage private citizens. Suing to overturn this action were citizens, a civic organization, and a local government.

The plaintiffs lost in the lower tribunals. The U.S. Court of Appeals also cited Rob’s article, but deemed itself bound by case precedent to uphold the government’s action. It was the latter decision the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review.

The result in Upstate Citizens suggests that even with the addition of Justices Alito and Gorsuch, Justice Thomas remains the only consistent originalist on the court.