Bio:
Richard Collins spent 15 years practicing Indian law with organizations such as California Rural Legal Assistance, California Indian Legal Services, Dinebeiina Nahiilna Be Agaditahe in Window Rock, Arizona, and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). Since joining the faculty, Professor Collins has continued work as a pro bono consultant to NARF and to Native American tribes, including the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. During the course of his appellate work, he has had a major role in several important Indian law decisions, including United States Supreme Court decisions such as McClanahan v. Arizona Tax Commission, 421 U.S. 164 (1973). His scholarship also focuses on constitutional issues, and he was Director of the law school's Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law from 2002 to 2010. Professor Collins has written and lectured on such topics as the religion clauses and their relationship to Indian Tribes, the Commerce Clause, and ballot initiatives and referendums. His recent research projects include a treatise on the Colorado Constitution, written with Dale Oesterle, an article on sacred sites on government lands in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, the current revision of Felix Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law, and an article in the Colorado Law Review on lawmaking by citizens' initiatives.