The Interior Department’s top lawyer has once again blocked the department’s ability to take Alaskan land into trust for Native communities, in the latest spin of a constantly revolving policy.
Citing a “thorough examination of the issue,” Interior Solicitor William Doffermyre on Tuesday formally withdrew a binding legal opinion on the matter issued by his predecessor in the Biden administration. That now-defunct opinion had allowed the taking of Alaskan land into trust.
In addition to withdrawing the Biden-era legal ruling, called M-37076, Doffermyre reinstated a contrary opinion issued during the first Trump administration by then-Interior Solicitor Daniel Jorjani.
Jorjani’s opinion, in turn, had reversed the position spelled out in an opinion known as M-37043 authored by the Obama administration’s Interior solicitor, Hilary Tompkins.
