Professor Maggie Blackhawk of the University of Pennsylvania Law School recently published a provocative article, entitled Federal Indian Law as Paradigm Within Public Law, in the HARVARD LAW REVIEW. Professor Blackhawk contends that the successes and failings of American constitutional law and public law have been framed largely through the lens of a black-white binary paradigm–with slavery and Jim Crow segregation providing the important lessons. While acknowledging the importance of slavery and Jim Crow, Professor Blackhawk argues for reframing our evaluation of constitutional law and public law through the lens of federal Indian law–taking into account successes and failures in that realm.
