"A second achievement of the judicial system is the protection that has been provided against encroachment by the states into tribal affairs. Federal judges are not inclined to view favourably efforts to extend states' powers and jurisdictions because of the direct threat that such expansion poses to the exercise of federal powers. In the absence of the federal statute directly and clearly allocating a function to the states, federal judges are inclined to reserve for the federal government - and the tribal governments under its charge - all those powers and rights they can be said to have possessed historically."
E is the incorrect choice because, while it is clear that the author believes that the extension of the states' powers and jurisdictions with respect to Native American affairs would be discouraged by most federal judges, they do not discuss a legal precedent which supports this extension. In addition to this, the author writes that there is no "federal statute directly and clearly allocating a function to the states."
D is correct because we can infer that the author believes that this extension of power to the states would be detrimental to the interests of Native Americans. There are two ways we can infer this. Firstly, the author uses strong language to refer to this, writing that an "achievement of the judicial system is the protection that has been provided against encroachment by the states into tribal affairs." The key terms to focus on here are 'achievement,' 'protection,' and 'encroachment.' Secondly, the author suggests that the extension of state powers and jurisdictions into Native American affairs would affect the powers and rights of the tribes as, if the federal government keeps their jurisdiction, they would then be "inclined to reserve for...the tribal governments under its charge - all those powers and rights they...have possessed historically."
Hope this is helpful! Please let us know if you have any further questions.
denleybishopFebruary 6, 2022
Me too, I answer that one too, we are not alone
RaviFebruary 8, 2022
@denleybishop, E doesn't work because the only legal precedent that's mentioned in the last paragraph is that the Court protects the powers and rights historically held by the federal government. Therefore, the precedent does not support the extension, so we can toss E.
As Victoria noted, the text around line 50 of the passage provides support for D, as it says that the court has protected against the "encroachment by the states into tribal affairs." Encroachment is a bad thing. Also, this paragraph functions as an example of how the court is protecting Native Americans. And this example stated that keeping the states out of the goings of the Native Americans was a good thing, so we can deduce that if the states were more involved, that would not be as good for the Native Americans.
