Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-376_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 59

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

17 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

nations,” the Court held, “a weaker power does not surren-
der its independence—its right to self-government, by asso-
ciating  with  a  stronger  and  taking  its  protection,”  id.,  at 
560–561.  The Cherokee, like other Tribes, remained “a dis-
tinct  community  occupying  its  own  territory  . . .  in  which 
the laws of [the State] can have no force, and which the cit-
izens of [that State] have no right to enter, but with the as-
sent of the [Tribe] themselves, or in conformity with trea-
ties, and with the acts of [C]ongress.”  Id., at 561.  Justice 
McLean, concurring, put it succinctly:  “All the rights which
belong to self-government have been recognized as vested 
in [the Tribes].”  Id., at 580. 

In  the  end,  President  Jackson  refused  to  abide  by  the 
Court’s  decision  in  Worcester,  precipitating  the  Trail  of 
Tears.  He is quoted as saying:  “ ‘John Marshall has made 
his decision; now let him enforce it.’ ”  F. Cohen, Handbook 
of Federal Indian Law 123 (1942).  But just as this Court 
had  no  power  to  enforce  its  judgment,  President  Jackson
had no power to erase its reasoning.  So the rule of Worces-
ter persisted in courts of law, unchanged, for decades.  Rec-
ognizing the inherent sovereignty of Tribes, this Court held 
that States could not tax Indian land.  See, e.g., The Kansas 
Indians, 5 Wall. 737, 751–761 (1867); The New York Indi-
ans,  5  Wall.  761,  771–772  (1867).  It  held  that  the  Four-
teenth Amendment did not apply on Indian land.  See Elk 
v. Wilkins, 112 U. S. 94, 99–109 (1884).  And it sharply lim-
ited even the power of the federal government to prosecute
crimes between Indians on Indian land where the Tribe had 
stepped in to resolve the dispute.  See Ex parte Crow Dog, 
109 U. S. 556, 572 (1883).

Nor did later developments call this original understand-
ing into doubt.  To be sure, in 1871, Congress declared that 
Tribes (prospectively) are no longer parties “with whom the 
United States may contract by treaty.”  Act of Mar. 3, 1871, 
16  Stat.  566,  codified  at  25  U. S. C.  §71;  but  see  United