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TAHLEQUAH, OK - Principal Chief Chad Smith has nominated Stacy Leeds, a law professor and tribal court judge, to fill a seat on the highest court in the Cherokee Nation, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal.

Leeds, a Cherokee Nation tribal member, is currently a justice on the Supreme Court for the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma and a special associate justice on the Supreme Court for the Kaw Nation.

Leeds has been an assistant law professor and director of the Northern Plains Indian Law Center at the University of North Dakota School of Law for the past two years and begins working this fall as a visiting law professor and interim director of the Tribal Law and Governance Center at the University of Kansas School of Law.

Leeds said her schedule will allow her to spend a significant amount of time on her JAT duties.

"Should my nomination be favorably confirmed, I intend to relocate to Ft. Gibson prior to the swearing in ceremony and commute to fulfill my teaching duties during the academic year,” Leeds said.

"Stacy Leeds not only has outstanding academic credentials, but her experience on other tribal courts should also help her become a great Cherokee jurist", Smith said. "The decisions of our JAT would be much richer and culturally based if we had a female perspective on the court."

To begin the confirmation process, Leeds will meet with the Rules Committee of the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council on July 18, 2002 at 5:00 p.m.