A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has reversed a lower-court ruling and ruled in favor of the N.C. State Commission on Indian Affairs in a dispute with the Meherrin Tribe over Meherrin representation on the commission.

If you’d like a headache, try to sift through the following language from the newly released Appeals Court opinion:

Respondent North Carolina State Commission of Indian Affairs appeals from an order entered by the trial court reversing the Commission’s decision to overturn an order entered by Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred G. Morrison granting summary judgment in favor of Petitioner Meherrin Tribe of North Carolina. The ultimate issue in dispute between the parties is the extent, if any, to which the Commission erred by declining to seat a representative favored by the leadership of the Tribe as the Meherrin representative on the Commission.

After careful consideration of the Commission’s challenges to the trial court’s order in light of the record and the applicable law, we conclude that the trial court’s order should be reversed and that this matter should be remanded to the trial court for further remand to the Commission for the entry of an order dismissing the Tribe’s petition.

Got it? Good.