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Page Number: 65

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

23 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

of Thomas Jefferson 27 (C. Cullen ed. 1986). 

For its part, this Court understood the absence of state
authority  over  tribal  matters  as  a  natural  corollary  of
Tribes’ inherent sovereignty.  Precisely because Tribes exist 
as a “distinct community,” this Court concluded in Worces-
ter, the “laws of [States] can have no force” as to them.  6 
Pet., at 561.  States could no more prescribe rules for Tribes 
than they could legislate for one another or a foreign sover-
eign.  More  than  that,  this  Court  recognized  that  “[t]he 
whole  intercourse  between  the  United  States  and  [each
Tribe], is by our [C]onstitution and laws, vested in the gov-
ernment  of  the  United  States.”  Ibid.  (emphasis  added).
State laws cannot “interfere forcibly with the relations es-
tablished between the United States and [an Indian Tribe],
the regulation of which, according to the settled principles
of our [C]onstitution, are committed exclusively to the gov-
ernment  of  the  [U]nion.”  Ibid.  (emphasis  added).    That 
principle, too, has endured.  No one can contest the “ ‘his-
toric immunity from state and local control’ ” that the Tribes
enjoy, nor the permissibility of constitutional provisions en-
acted to protect the Tribes’ “sovereign status.” New Mexico 
v. Mescalero Apache Tribe, 462 U. S. 324, 332 (1983).  Tuck 
that point away too. 

C 

We now know that, at the founding, the Tribes retained 
their sovereignty.  We know also that States have virtually
no role to play in managing interactions with Tribes.  From 
this, it follows that “[t]he only restriction on the power” of
Tribes  “in  respect  to  [their]  internal  affairs”  arises  when
their actions “conflict with the Constitution or laws of the 
United States.”  Roff v. Burney, 168 U. S. 218, 222 (1897). 
In  cases  like  that,  the  Constitution  provides,  federal  law 
must prevail.  See Art. VI.  This creates a hydraulic rela-
tionship  between  federal  and  tribal  authority.  The  more 
the  former  expands,  the  more  the  latter  shrinks.    All  of