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Page Number: 20

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

17 

Opinion of the Court 

U. S. 138, 150 (1984).  The Court’s definitive statement in 
Three Affiliated Tribes about Public Law 280 applies to both
civil and criminal jurisdiction.  And the Court’s statement 
follows ineluctably from the statutory text:  Public Law 280 
contains no language that preempts States’ civil or criminal 
jurisdiction.

Castro-Huerta separately contends that the enactment of 
Public Law 280 in 1953 would have been pointless surplus-
age  if  States  already  had  concurrent  jurisdiction  over 
crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian 
country.  So he says that, as of 1953, Congress must have
assumed that States did not already have concurrent juris-
diction over those crimes.  To begin with, assumptions are
not laws, and the fact remains that Public Law 280 contains 
no language preempting state jurisdiction, as the Court al-
ready held in Three Affiliated Tribes.  Apart from that, Pub-
lic Law 280 encompasses far more than just non-Indian on
Indian crimes (the issue here).  Public Law 280 also grants 
States jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians.  See 
Conference of Western Attorneys General, American Indian 
Law  Deskbook  §4.6,  p.  250–251  (2021  ed.);  cf.  Negonsott, 
507 U. S., at 105–107.  Absent Public Law 280, state juris-
diction over those Indian-defendant crimes could implicate
principles  of  tribal  self-government.    See  White  Mountain 
Apache  Tribe  v.  Bracker,  448  U. S.  136,  142–143  (1980); 
Part III–B, infra.  So our resolution of the narrow jurisdic-
tional issue in this case does not negate the significance of
Public Law 280 in affording States broad criminal jurisdic-
tion over other crimes committed in Indian country, such as
crimes committed by Indians.4 

—————— 

4 Castro-Huerta also points to several state-specific grants of jurisdic-
tion from 1940 through 1948.  See Act of July 2, 1948, ch. 809, 62 Stat. 
1224 (New York); Act of June 30, 1948, ch. 759, 62 Stat. 1161 (Iowa); Act
of  May  31,  1946,  ch.  279,  60  Stat.  229  (North  Dakota);  Act  of  June  8, 
1940, ch. 276, 54 Stat. 249 (Kansas).  Those statutes operate similarly to 
Public Law 280.