WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. (AP) – In the Navajo culture, four is a sacred or almost lucky number. There are four original clans, four colors that represent four mountains in the four cardinal directions and four sacred plants.

It may be ironic, said Navajo Nation Supreme Court Chief Justice Herb Yazzie, that Tuesday marked the fourth time the high court has taken up an issue related to the tribal president's effort to reform the government.

“This is the fourth time, and we say in our culture that it's gotta work out on the fourth time,” Yazzie said.

Many Navajos have been frustrated over unanswered questions from a December election that reduced the size of the Tribal Council from 88 members to 24 and gave the president line-item veto authority. Yazzie assured the audience of nearly 200 people at the Navajo Nation Museum that the justices would work to reach a timely decision on the latest case and bring the parties together to announce it.

The hearing was held to address Navajo voter Tim Nelson's appeal of the dismissal of a grievance he filed after the election. But the justices anticipated a potential conflict stemming from a measure the council passed earlier this year to limit the courts' use of centuries-old traditional values and customs in deciding cases.

The justices asked the attorneys to weigh in on whether the change to prevent judges from using what's known as “Dine Fundamental Law” was valid and whether it would impact the case.

Thousands of cases have been resolved in tribal courts using Navajo customs and traditions, which are sometimes the only laws available to judges on certain issues. The Tribal Council codified the laws in 2002 but voted earlier this year to limit the use of the laws that have long guided the upbringing of Navajos solely to peacemaking courts.

A hearing that started off as an election dispute “blossomed into a policy and fundamental law argument before the court,” said Nelson's attorney, John Trebon. He made little mention of the fundamental law, saying his argument that Nelson was denied an opportunity to respond to a request for dismissal of his grievance could survive without it.

Nelson argued in the grievance that the election was invalid because the initiatives passed without a majority vote in each of the tribe's 110 precincts, a requirement he said is not impossible to meet though others disagreed.

Defense attorney Albert Hale, representing Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr., said tribal lawmakers have no right to impose limitations on the court's use of fundamental law that was put in place by deities, or Holy People, long ago. The election case was pending when the council voted to make changes to fundamental law, and that means it cannot be applied retroactively, he said.

“As far as I'm concerned, this court is still free to apply fundamental law in this case, and it's important that it does so,” he said.

Hale maintained Nelson's grievance was properly dismissed because Nelson did not name the appropriate parties as defendants.

Tribal Department of Justice Attorney Regina Holyan said the election required only a simple majority of votes to pass and urged the justices to uphold that standard. Doing so would be consistent with a principle of fundamental law that people have the right to choose their form of government, she said.

After the hearing, Nelson gathered with Tribal Council delegates, who funded his case and took a break from their spring session to attend the hearing. While recognizing that most arguments were in opposition to his, Nelson said “we just want everyone to follow the rules to maintain the democracy.”

If the requirement for ballot initiatives to pass is lowered, “you really open the floodgates to have a minority faction delegate laws for the majority,” he said.

Shirley met with executive branch staff in a nearby conference room, saying he was hopeful the Supreme Court's pending decision would put an end to challenges to the initiatives he started two years ago.

“In growing sometimes we hit bumps, we hit glitches,” Shirley said. “But as the great nation we are, we're able to transcend these bumps, these glitches, and I don't think today is any different.”