Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-9526_9okb.pdf
Page Number: 10.0

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

any, can we say that the Creek Reservation persists today? 
To determine whether a tribe continues to hold a reser-
vation, there is only one place we may look: the Acts of Con-
gress.  This Court long ago held that the Legislature wields 
significant constitutional authority when it comes to tribal 
relations, possessing even the authority to breach its own
promises  and  treaties.    Lone  Wolf  v.  Hitchcock,  187  U. S. 
553, 566–568 (1903).  But that power, this Court has cau-
tioned,  belongs  to  Congress  alone.  Nor  will  this  Court 
lightly infer such a breach once Congress has established a 
reservation.  Solem v. Bartlett, 465 U. S. 463, 470 (1984).

Under our Constitution, States have no authority to re-
duce federal reservations lying within their borders.  Just 
imagine if they did.  A State  could encroach  on the tribal 
boundaries  or  legal  rights  Congress  provided,  and,  with 
enough time and patience, nullify the promises made in the 
name of the United States.  That would be at odds with the 
Constitution,  which  entrusts  Congress  with  the  authority
to regulate commerce with Native Americans, and directs 
that federal treaties and statutes are the “supreme Law of 
the Land.”  Art. I, §8; Art. VI, cl. 2.  It would also leave tribal 
rights in the hands of the very neighbors who might be least 
inclined to respect them.

Likewise, courts have no proper role in the adjustment of
reservation borders.  Mustering the broad social consensus 
required to pass new legislation is a deliberately hard busi-
ness  under  our  Constitution.    Faced  with  this  daunting
task, Congress sometimes might wish an inconvenient res-
ervation would simply disappear.  Short of that, legislators 
might seek to pass laws that tiptoe to the edge of disestab-
lishment and hope that judges—facing no possibility of elec-
toral consequences themselves—will deliver the final push.
But  wishes  don’t  make  for  laws,  and  saving  the  political 
branches the embarrassment of disestablishing a reserva-
tion is not one of our constitutionally assigned prerogatives. 
“[O]nly  Congress  can  divest  a  reservation  of  its  land  and