Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/17-532_q86b.pdf
Page Number: 32.0

Cite as:  587 U. S. ____ (2019) 

7 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

killed  in  Bighorn  and  were  able  to  locate  the  sites  where
the pictures had been taken.  At those sites, about a mile 
south  of  the  fence  running  along  the  Bighorn  National 
Forest  boundary,  state  officials  discovered  elk  carcasses. 
The heads had been taken from the carcasses but much of 
the  meat  was  abandoned  in  the  field.  State  officials  con-
fronted  Herrera,  who  confessed  to  the  shootings  and
turned  over  the  heads  that  he  and  his  companions  had
taken as trophies.  The Wyoming officials cited Herrera for
hunting out of season.

Herrera moved to dismiss the citations, arguing that he
had  a  treaty  right  to  hunt  in  Bighorn.  The  trial  court 
rejected  this  argument,  concluding  that  it  was  foreclosed 
by  the  Tenth  Circuit’s  analysis  in  Repsis,  and  the  jury 
found  Herrera  guilty.    On  appeal,  Herrera  continued  to 
argue that he had a treaty right to hunt in Bighorn.  The 
appellate court held that the judgment in Repsis precluded
him  from  asserting  a  treaty  hunting  right,  and  it  also
held,  in  the  alternative,  that  Herrera’s  treaty  rights  did 
not  allow  him  to  hunt  in  Bighorn.    This  Court  granted 
certiorari. 

II 

In  seeking  review  in  this  Court,  Herrera  framed  this 
case  as  implicating  only  a  question  of  treaty  interpreta-
tion.  But unless the state court was wrong in holding that
Herrera  is  bound  by  the  judgment  in  Repsis,  there  is  no 
reason  to  reach  the  treaty-interpretation  question.  For 
this  reason,  I  would  begin  with  the  question of  issue  pre-
clusion, and because I believe that Herrera is bound by the
adverse decision on that issue in Repsis, I would not reach 
the treaty-interpretation issue. 

A 
It  is  “a  fundamental  precept  of  common-law  adjudica-
tion” that “an issue once determined by a competent court