Torey Dolan
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toreydolan.bsky.social
Torey Dolan
@toreydolan.bsky.social
260 followers 110 following 75 posts
Assistant Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School. An Indian writing about Federal Indian Law/Voting Rights. Citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma living on Ho Chunk Land📍
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toreydolan.bsky.social
I have a meme for this.
October 23, 2025 at 12:50 AM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Listen to music and hype myself up while going over my presentation notes. (Still listen to my job talk playlists when I need a boost).
October 21, 2025 at 4:36 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
The number one item on my to-do list today was to update my course canvas…🙃
October 20, 2025 at 4:11 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
My response to the Louisiana v. Callais argument is to say anyone that thinks Gingles preconditions are a low bar hasn’t been a voter-side voting rights attorney. See this quote from the Chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting commission this last cycle.
“We are the first commission that didn’t have preclearance. So our approach to the Voting Rights Act was entirely our interpretation of what that law means,” Erika Neuberg (Chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission said). “I did not believe that on the congressional level, that it was the right thing to do to continue to have the Native Americans drive the shape of the rest of the map.”
October 15, 2025 at 10:53 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
A sneak preview: my article "American Indian Geopolitical Rights" is a labor of passion. Through this article, I consider the interests that American Indians have in land and how we should reimagine electoral geography and law in cognizance of these interests I term "Indian Geopolitical Rights."
"American Indian Geopolitical Rights" by Torey Dolan. Abstract: American Indian people hold a unique legal position under the United States Constitution and within American law based on Indian status. This unique relationship at times reflects the cultural, spiritual, and legal ties to land that are unique to American Indians and represent aberrations in American law. This fundamentally impacts the lives and interests of American Indians, including in matters of representational democracy. This paper seeks to contextualize the proscriptive legal ties that American Indians have with land under law, termed herein “Indian Geopolitical Rights.” This paper argues that American Indian Geopolitical Rights reflect not only significant cultural interests of American Indians, but that American Indians have substantive rights that are tied to place that impacts how Indians engage with democratic systems and conceive of political representation. As such, the needs of American Indians necessitate a consideration of Indian geopolitical rights in the development, maintenance, and implementation of local, state, and federal electoral systems. This paper argues that Indian geopolitical rights are incumbent upon states, that election law doctrine is currently ill-equipped to protect Indian geopolitical rights, and incorporating Indian geopolitical rights is consistent with the U.S. Constitution and principles of federalism. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 I. THE LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF INDIAN GEOPOLITICAL RIGHTS 9 A. PRE-CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND INDIGENOUS LAND PHILOSOPHIES 9 1. Pre-Constitutional Law 9 2. Indigenous Land Philosophy versus Western Legal Philosophy 11 B. THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION AND THE STRUCTURE OF INDIAN LAW 14 1. Indian Law Fundamental Principles 15 2. Indian Status and American Citizenship 19 C. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIANS AND LAND UNDER AMERICAN LAW 29 1. Indian Country and Tribal Territory 29 2. Treaties, Reservations, and Permanent Homelands 31 II. TAXONOMY OF INDIAN POLITICAL RIGHTS 36 A. INDIAN POLITICAL RIGHTS NOT DEPENDENT ON SPACE 39 1. Indian Status based on United States Law 40 2. Indian Status based on Tribal Affiliation 42 B. INDIAN GEOPOLITICAL RIGHTS 42 1. Recognized Indian Geopolitical Rights 43 a. Indian Geopolitical Rights with Indian Status under United States Law 43 b. Indian Geopolitical Rights with Indian Status based on Tribal Affiliation 47 2. What Indian Geopolitical Rights Does Not Include 51 III. HOW VOTING RIGHTS LAW DOES NOT ACCOMMODATE INDIAN GEOPOLITICAL RIGHTS 52 A. VOTE DILUTION AND GEOPOLITICAL VALUES 54 1. One-Person, One-Vote, but Not Land 55 2. Population Size 57 B. EXCLUSIVE RACIAL LENS OF VOTING RIGHTS LAW 60 C. COUNTY BOUNDARIES CROSSING TRIBAL LANDS 66 1. The San Carlos Apache Reservation Example 69 2. The Candidate Example with Trish Carter-Goodheart (Nez Perce) 73 CONCLUSION 77
August 6, 2025 at 7:10 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Reading through the concurrences. The Oklahoma Supreme Court is fully invested in developing an Oklahoma-centric anti-canon of Indian Law. This ending paragraph from the Winchester concurrence makes clear the political aim: stop fighting and legally assimilate.
July 3, 2025 at 6:19 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Who knew the Oklahoma City Thunder were so excited for me to come to NAISA.
June 24, 2025 at 7:59 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
You ever read a piece of scholarship and get so frustrated you just have to stare at the wall for a few minutes before you continue? Just me?
April 15, 2025 at 8:16 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
April 14, 2025 at 6:40 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
April 14, 2025 at 6:39 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Voted today in the Badger State! 🦡
April 1, 2025 at 3:26 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Immigrants are not Indians. Full stop. Indian law re: Indians is not applicable to non-Indians.
March 28, 2025 at 4:51 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Supplanting established Indian Law scholars in an already occupied field. It feels very reminiscent of…something…
Painting “American Progress” depicting the historic process of manifest destiny and colonization of the American West.
March 23, 2025 at 2:52 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
This is the second Constitutional Law piece I have read this week that engages with Indian Law without engaging *any* Indian Law scholars.
A Seminole man in sunglasses stares sternly. The caption says “stares in native.”
March 23, 2025 at 2:43 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Taught ICWA today, which gives me an excuse to post one of my favorite footnotes from Greg Ablavsky’s amicus brief before the 5th Cir in Texas v. Zinke (later known as Brackeen).
To be sure, the term "Indian" in the late eighteenth century was freighted with racial as well as political meanings. Anglo-Americans of the time routinely defined "Indians" as different from "white people" based on skin color. Ablavsky, Race, supra, at 1050-54. After the Revolution, Anglo-Americans specifically spoke of Indians as a distinct "race." Id. As discussed above, there are good reasons to question whether this definition was the one adopted in the Constitution. Yet insisting that the term "Indian" in the Constitution possessed racial meaning at the time of Founding would nonetheless not render "Indian" a constitutionally impermissible classification. On the contrary, because the term "Indian" appears in the Constitution, challengers to Indian classifications would be arguing, in effect, that the Constitution itself is unconstitutional. 23
March 17, 2025 at 9:41 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
A meme showing disgust at the idea of the United States colonizing Greenland but piqued interest at the idea of refusing to recognize European claims on the doctrine of discovery.
March 13, 2025 at 9:21 PM
toreydolan.bsky.social
Being an Indian in Indian Law during this explosive birthright citizenship debate in the legal academy:
March 5, 2025 at 4:32 PM