Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/21-429_8o6a.pdf
Page Number: 67

Cite as:  597 U. S. ____ (2022) 

39 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

with  inherent  authority  to  try  cases  involving  Native 
Americans within tribal bounds.  See ante, at 18.  Nor does 
the Court address the relevant text of those treaties or the 
Enabling Act—let alone come to terms with our precedents
holding  that  Oklahoma’s  “grant  of  statehood”  did  not 
include  the  power  to  try  “crimes  committed  by  or  against
Indians” on tribal lands.  Ramsey, 271 U. S., at 469; see also 
Tiger, 221 U. S., at 309.  Nothing in today’s decision could 
or does begin to preclude the Cherokee or other Tribes from 
pressing arguments along any of these lines in future cases. 
The  unamended  Oklahoma  Constitution  and  other  state 
statutes  and  judicial  decisions  may  stand  as  independent 
barriers to the assumption of state jurisdiction as a matter
of state law too. 

The  Court’s  decision  is  limited  in  still  other  important 
ways.  Most significantly, the Court leaves undisturbed the
ancient rule that States cannot prosecute crimes by Native 
Americans  on  tribal  lands  without  clear  congressional
authorization—for  that  would  touch  the  heart  of  “tribal 
self-government.”  Ante,  at  17.  At  least  that  rule  (and
maybe  others)  can  never  be  balanced  away.    Indeed,  the 
Court’s ruling today rests in significant part on the fact that
Tribes currently lack criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians 
who commit crimes on tribal lands—a factor that obviously
does  not  apply  to  cases  involving  Native  American 
defendants.  Ante, at 19. 

Additionally, nothing in the “Bracker balancing” test the
Court employs foreordains today’s grim result for different
Tribes in different States.  Bracker instructs courts to focus 
on the “specific context” at issue, taking cognizance of the 
particular circumstances of the Tribe in question, including
all relevant treaties and statutes.  448 U. S., at 145.  Nor 
are  Tribes  and  their  treaties  “fungible.”  S. Prakash, 
Against Tribal Fungibility, 89 Cornell L. Rev. 1069, 1071–
1072  (2004).    There  are  nearly  600  federally  recognized 
Indian Tribes across the country.  See Anderson 3.  Some of