David Lane, lawyer for Ward Churchill, has written a five-page letter to University of Colorado's acting chancellor Phil DeStefano, asking how the faculty committee intends to establish that Churchill is or is not a Native American.

In a series of references to infamous historic efforts at defining race, Lane asks rhetorically how the school intends to prove whether Churchill is part Indian, as he has maintained in the face of questions about his background. "Do you wish to employ the Nazi standard for racial purity? ... Do you wish to employ the standard adopted by the United States government for determining Japanese ancestry in order to qualify for internment? ... "

Lane spent four of the five pages of the letter attacking the CU investigation of his client:

[Lane] accused the university of "the grossest violation of due process and fundamental fairness" in the handling of Churchill's case and asked that the complaint against him be dismissed.

"...It's offensive he's being asked to show his pedigree," Lane said. "Is he really a registered dog with the American Kennel Club?"