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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 1162', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 1652', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 1321', '§ 7', '§ 1162', '§ 1360', '§ 1322', '§ 4', '§ 1326', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 1360', '§ 4', '§ 1360', '§ 564', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 4']

BRYAN V. ITASCA COUNTY, 426 U. S. 373 - Volume 426 - 1976 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 426 > BRYAN V. ITASCA COUNTY, 426 U. S. 373 (1976) > Full Text
BRYAN V. ITASCA COUNTY, 426 U. S. 373 (1976)
Principles defining the power of States to tax reservation
Page 426 U. S. 376
Indians and their property and activities on federally established reservations were clarified in McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm'n, supra. As summarized in its companion case, Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, 411 U. S. 145 (1973), McClanahan concluded:
Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, supra at 411 U. S. 148. [Footnote 2]
Page 426 U. S. 377
McClanahan held that Arizona was disabled, in the absence of congressional consent, from imposing a state income tax on the income of a reservation Indian earned solely on the reservation. On the authority of McClanahan, Moe v. Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 425 U. S. 463 (1976), held this Term that, in the absence of congressional consent, the State was disabled from imposing a personal property tax on motor vehicles owned by tribal members living on the reservation, or a vendor license fee applied to a reservation Indian conducting a business for the tribe on reservation land, or a sales tax a applied to on-reservation sales by Indians to Indians.
"Each of the States . . . listed in the following table shall have jurisdiction over civil causes of action between Indians or to which Indians are parties which arise in the areas of Indian country listed . . . to the same extent that such State . . . has jurisdiction over other civil causes of action, and those civil laws of such State . . . that are of general application to private persons or private property shall have the same force and effect within such Indian country as they have elsewhere within the State . . . : "
Page 426 U. S. 378
303 Minn. at 402, 228 N.W.2d at 253. [Footnote 3] Therefore, the state court held: "Public Law 280 is a clear grant of the power
Page 426 U. S. 379
to tax." Id. at 406, 228 N.W.2d at 256. [Footnote 4] We disagree. That conclusion is foreclosed by the legislative history of Pub.L. 280 and the application of canons of construction applicable to congressional statutes claimed to terminate Indian immunities.
"As a practical matter, the enforcement of law
Page 426 U. S. 380
and order among the Indians in the Indian country has been left largely to the Indian groups themselves. In many States, tribes are not adequately organized to perform that function; consequently, there has been created a hiatus in law enforcement authority that could best be remedied by conferring criminal jurisdiction on States indicating an ability and willingness to accept such responsibility."
H.R.Rep. No. 848, 83d Cong., 1st Sess., 6 (1953). [Footnote 5] Thus, provision for state criminal jurisdiction over offenses committed by or against Indians on the reservations was the central focus of Pub. L 280, and is embodied in § 2 of the Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1162. [Footnote 6]
Page 426 U. S. 381
"Mr. Young. Does your bill limit the provision
Page 426 U. S. 382
for Federal assistance to States in defraying.the increased expenses of the courts in connection with the widening of the jurisdiction that the bill encompasses?"
"Mr. Sellery. The Indians, of course, do pay other forms of taxes. I do not know how the courts
Page 426 U. S. 383
of Nevada are supported financially, but the Indians do pay the sales tax and other taxes."
With this as the primary
Page 426 U. S. 384
focus of § 4(a), the wording that follows in § 4(a) --
-- authorizes application by the state courts of their rules of decision to decide such disputes. [Footnote 10] Cf. 28 U.S.C. § 1652. This construction finds support in the consistent and uncontradicted references in the legislative history to "permitting" "State courts to adjudicate civil controversies" arising on Indian reservations, H.R.Rep. No. 848, pp. 5, 6 (emphasis added), and the absence of anything remotely resembling an intention to confer general state civil regulatory control over Indian reservations. [Footnote 11] In
Page 426 U. S. 385
short, the consistent and exclusive use of the terms "civil causes of action," "aris[ing] on," "civil laws . . . of general application to private persons or private property," and "adjudicat[ion]" in both the Act and its legislative history virtually compels our conclusion that the primary intent of § 4 was to grant jurisdiction over private civil litigation involving reservation Indians in state court.
Furthermore, certain tribal reservations were completely exempted from the provisions of Pub.L. 280 precisely because each had a "tribal law and order organization that functions in a reasonably satisfactory manner." H.R.Rep. No. 848, p. 7. [Footnote 12] Congress plainly
Page 426 U. S. 386
meant only to allow state courts to decide criminal and civil matters arising on reservations not so organized. Accordingly, rather than the expansive reading given § 4(a) by the Minnesota Supreme Court, we feel that the construction we give the section is much more consonant with the revealed congressional intent. Moreover, our construction is consistent with our prior references to § 4 as "the extension of state jurisdiction over civil causes of action by or against Indians arising in Indian country." Kennerly v. District Court of Montana, 400 U. S. 423, 400 U. S. 427 (1971). See also id. at 400 U. S. 424 n. 1; id. at 400 U. S. 430-431 (STEWART, J., dissenting); Warren Trading Post v. Arizona Tax Comm'n, 380 U. S. 685, 380 U. S. 687 n. 3 (1965); Menominee Tribe v. United States, 391 U. S. 404, 391 U. S. 416 n. 8 (1968) (STEWART, J., dissenting).
Our construction is also more consistent with Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, 82 Stat. 78, 25 U.S.C. § § 1321-1326. Title IV repeals § 7 of Pub.L. 280, and requires tribal consent as a condition to further state assumptions of the jurisdiction provided in 18 U.S.C. § 1162 and 28 U.S.C. § 1360. Section 402 of Title IV, 25 U.S.C. § 1322, tracks the language of § 4 of Pub.L. 280. Section 406 of Title IV, 25 U.S.C. § 1326, which provides for Indian consent, refers to "State jurisdiction acquired pursuant to this subchapter with respect to criminal offenses or civil causes of action. . . ." It is true, of course, that the primary interpretation of § 4 must have reference to the legislative history of the Congress that enacted it, rather than to the history of Acts of a later Congress. Nevertheless, Title IV of the 1968 Act is intimately related to § 4, as it provides the method for further state assumptions of the jurisdiction conferred by § 4, and we previously have construed the effect of legislation affecting reservation Indians in light of "intervening" legislative enactments. Moe v. Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 425 U.S. at 425 U. S. 472-475. It would be
Page 426 U. S. 387
difficult to suppose that Congress, in 1968, intended the meaning of § 4 to vary depending upon the time and method by which particular States acquired jurisdiction. And certainly the legislative history of Title IV makes it difficult to construe § 4 jurisdiction acquired pursuant to Title IV as extending general state civil regulatory authority, including taxing power, to govern Indian reservations. Senator Ervin, who offered and principally sponsored Title IV, see Kennerly v. District Court of Montana, supra at 400 U. S. 429 n. 5, referred to § 1360 civil jurisdiction as follows:
Other considerations also support our construction. Today's congressional policy toward reservation Indians may less clearly than in 1953 favor their assimilation, but Pub.L. 280 was plainly not meant to effect total assimilation. Public L. 280 was only one of many types of assimilationist legislation under active consideration
Page 426 U. S. 388
in 1953. H.R.Rep. No. 848, pp. 5; Santa Rosa Band of Indians v. Kings County, 532 F.2d 655, 662 (CA9 1975). [Footnote 13] And nothing in its legislative history remotely suggests that Congress meant the Act's extension of civil jurisdiction to the States should result in the undermining or destruction of such tribal governments as did exist and a conversion of the affected tribes into little more than "private, voluntary organizations,'" United States v. Mazurie, 419 U. S. 544, 419 U. S. 557 (1975) -- a possible result if tribal governments and reservation Indians were subordinated to the full panoply of civil regulatory powers, including taxation, of state and local governments. [Footnote 14] The Act itself refutes such an
Page 426 U. S. 389
inference: there is notably absent any conferral of state jurisdiction over the tribes themselves, and § 4(c), 28 U.S.C. § 1360(c), providing for the "full force and effect" of any tribal ordinances or customs "heretofore or hereafter adopted by an Indian tribe . . . if not inconsistent with any applicable civil law of the State," contemplates the continuing vitality of tribal government.
"and any income derived therefrom by the individual, corporation, or other legal entity . . . to the same taxes, State and Federal, as in the case of non-Indians, 25 U.S.C.
Page 426 U. S. 390
§§ 564j, 749, 898, and provide that"
is not obviously the narrow exclusion of state taxation that the Minnesota Supreme Court read it to be. On its face, the statute is not clear whether the exclusion is applicable only to taxes levied directly on the trust property specifically or whether it also excludes taxation on activities
Page 426 U. S. 391
taking place in conjunction with such property and income deriving from its use. And even if read narrowly to apply only to taxation levied against trust property directly, § 4(b) certainly does not expressly authorize all other state taxation of reservation Indians.
Indeed, § 4(b) in its entirety may be read as simply a reaffirmation of the existing reservation Indian-Federal Government relationship in all respects save the conferral of state court jurisdiction to adjudicate private civil causes of action involving Indians. We agree with the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that § 4(b) "is entirely consistent with, and in effect is a reaffirmation of, the law as it stood prior to its enactment." Kirkwood v. Arenas, 243 F.2d 863, 865-866 (1957). The absence of more precise language respecting state taxation of reservation Indians is entirely consistent with a general uncertainty in 1953 of the precise limits of state power to tax reservation Indians respecting other than their trust property, and a congressional
Page 426 U. S. 392
intent merely to reaffirm the existing law whatever subsequent litigation might determine it to be. [Footnote 16]
Oklahoma Tax Comm'n v. United States, 319 U. S. 598, 319 U. S. 613-614 (1943) (Murphy, J., dissenting). What we recently said of a claim that
Page 426 U. S. 393
Congress had terminated an Indian reservation by means of an ambiguous statute is equally applicable here to the respondent's claim that § 4(a) of Pub.L. 280 is a clear grant of power to tax, and hence a termination of traditional Indian immunity from state taxation:
"Minnesota. All Indian country within the State,"
"(b) Nothing in this section shall authorize the alienation, encumbrance, or taxation of any real or personal property, including water rights, belonging to any Indian or any Indian tribe, band, or community that is held in trust by the United States or is subject to a restriction against alienation imposed by the United States; or shall authorize regulation of the use of such property in a manner inconsistent with any Federal treaty, agreement, or statute or with any regulation made pursuant thereto; or shall deprive any Indian or any Indian tribe, band, or community of any right, privilege, or immunity afforded under Federal treaty, agreement, or statute with respect to hunting, trapping, or fishing or the control, licensing, or regulation thereof."
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