{"id":12791,"date":"2021-06-11T10:52:22","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T14:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=12791"},"modified":"2021-06-11T10:55:35","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T14:55:35","slug":"scotusblog-supreme-court-decision-marks-a-first-for-tribal-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/06\/11\/scotusblog-supreme-court-decision-marks-a-first-for-tribal-sovereignty\/","title":{"rendered":"SCOTUSBlog: Supreme Court decision marks a first for tribal sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"\"U.S.<\/a>
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Cooley was unanimous, with the June 1, 2021, opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer. Image: SCOTUSBlog<\/figcaption>\r\n
Affirmation of inherent tribal power to police blurs civil and criminal Indian law tests<\/div>\r\n
Friday, June 11, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Elizabeth Reese <\/i><\/a> <\/div>\r\n
SCOTUSBlog<\/div>\r\n
scotusblog.com<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nLast Tuesday in United States v. Cooley<\/em><\/a>, the Supreme Court upheld a power that tribal governments have long assumed they possessed as a basic necessity of ensuring public safety. The court held that tribal governments<\/a> \u2014 and thus their police officers \u2014 retain the power to temporarily stop, and if necessary, search non-Indians traveling on public rights-of-way (highways) through reservations for suspected violations of federal or state laws. \r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe unanimous opinion was authored by Justice Stephen Breyer<\/a>. The decision represents an important affirmation of tribal inherent sovereign power by the new court and the first time the court has ever found that a tribe\u2019s interest in addressing a threat to its political integrity, economic security, health or welfare was strong enough for the tribe to exert government authority of any kind over a non-Indian.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe defendant in the case, Joshua James Cooley, was arrested after a tribal police officer noticed his truck idling on the side of a highway that runs through the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. While questioning Cooley to figure out if he needed any help, the officer suspected Cooley may have drugs, and then suspected he might resort to violence, leading the officer to draw his weapon, detain Cooley, and search the vehicle for weapons. The officer found both drugs and guns in the car, leading to a federal drug and firearms prosecution.\r\n

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19-1414<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nCooley argued that the evidence was illegally obtained because the officer was a tribal officer, and therefore lacked the power to detain and search Cooley because Cooley is a non-Indian. The defense suggested that the officer should have assessed Cooley\u2019s Indian status and then let him go upon realizing he was a non-Indian unless the officer actively witnessed him committing a crime \u2014 a framework the prosecuting jurisdiction, the United States, argued was unworkable and unsafe for officers and tribal communities.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nIndian tribes are sovereign entities unlike any other. Once fully independent nations, they are now domestic dependent sovereigns within the United States whose authority over their lands and the people who come onto their lands is now necessarily limited by that status.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBreyer\u2019s opinion begins by embracing the court\u2019s long history of describing and upholding tribal government powers as \u201cretained inherent sovereign authority.\u201d While it seems like little more than a nod to clearly binding precedent, there have been recent attempts to persuade the court to depart from this doctrine and instead require Congress to affirmatively delegate or grant tribal governments power over non-Indians.\r\n

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