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18 

HAALAND v. BRACKEEN 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

one  Indian-specific  power,  there  is  simply  no  reason  to 
think  that  there  is  some  sort  of  free-floating,  unlimited 
power over all things related to Indians.  That is common 
sense: expressio unius est exclusio alterius.  And that is par-
ticularly true here, because the Founders adopted the “In-
dian  Commerce  Clause”  while  rejecting  an  arguably 
broader authority over “Indian affairs.”  See Adoptive Cou-
ple, 570 U. S., at 662.  Accordingly, here as elsewhere, the 
Federal Government can exercise only its constitutionally
enumerated powers.  Because each of those powers contains 
its own inherent limits, none of them can support an addi-
tional  unbounded  power  over  all  Indian-related  matters. 
Indeed, the history of the plenary power doctrine in Indian
law shows that, from its inception, it has been a power in 
search of a constitutional basis—and the majority opinion 
shows that this is still the case. 

A 
As  the  majority  notes,  some  of  the  candidates  that  this
Court  has  suggested  as  the  source  of  the  “plenary  power”
are the Treaty Clause, the Commerce Clause, and “princi-
ples inherent in the Constitution’s structure.”  See ante, at 
10–13; Lara, 541 U. S., at 200.  But each of those powers
has clear, inherent limits, and not one suggests any sort of
unlimited power over Indian affairs—much less a power to
regulate  U.  S.  citizens  outside  of  Indian  lands  merely  be-
cause those individuals happen to be Indians.  I will discuss 
each in turn. 

1 

First, and most obviously, the Treaty Clause confers only 
the power to “make Treaties”; the Supremacy Clause then
makes those treaties the supreme law of the land.  Art. II, 
§2,  cl. 2;  Art.  VI.    Even  under  our  most  expansive  Treaty 
Clause precedents, this power is still limited to actual trea-
ties.  See  Bond  v.  United  States,  572  U. S.  844,  854–855