In its Mabo judgment, the High Court limited rights to native-title claims to unused land owned by the state.

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The Massachusetts native also created a Boston Celtics-themed basketball court on the 1.7-acre property.

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In a rare move, Senate Republicans voted in December 2011 to block Halligan the first time she was tapped for the court, complaining the 46-year-old Ohio native was too liberal and would be an activist on the bench.

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In a rare move, Senate Republicans voted in December 2011 to block Halligan the first time she was tapped for the appeals court, complaining that the 46-year-old Ohio native was too liberal and would bring her "extreme" political views to the bench.

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Then, in 1990, the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment did not protect the religious use of peyote by the Native American Church.

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Although he served nearly two decades on the high court, he made no secret of his preference for the lifestyle and pace of his native rural New Hampshire.

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The court decided by a narrow majority in favour of the Wik people: that pastoral leases and native title could co-exist.

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Washington (CNN) -- A custody battle involving the "best interests" of a 3-year-old Cherokee girl was taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, an issue spanning the rights of adoptive parents and the desire to preserve Native American families within tribes.

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