Navajo Nation v. U.S., 10-5036

Indian Tribe's Fifth Amendment Taking Claim

Navajo Nation v. U.S., 10-5036, concerned a challenge to the district court's dismissal of the complaint in concluding that plaintiff did not have the requisite property interest to establish a valid takings action, in an Indian Tribe's suit seeking damages for an alleged Fifth Amendment taking of its right to develop land granted to it by the United States in 1934.


In vacating the judgment and remanding with instructions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, the court held that, even assuming arguendo that the 1934 Act vested the Navajo Nation with the right to unilateral development within the Bennett Freeze area, and the restrictions on development within that area could be construed as a compensable taking of the Nation's property rights, any Fifth Amendment takings claim is barred because it was filed more than six years after it first accrued.

Related Link:

• Read the Federal Circuit's Full Decision in Navajo Nation v. U.S., 10-5036