Opinion ID: 202707
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statutory Clarity in Context: Indian Statutes in Supreme Court Case Law

Text: 49 The Aroostook Band attempts to undercut the clarity of MICSA by comparing it to statutes—most notably Public Law 280 and the Menominee Indian Termination Act of 1954—examined in several Supreme Court cases. 50 MICSA stands in stark contrast to Public Law 280, Act of Aug. 15, 1953, ch. 505, 67 Stat. 588 (codified as amended at 18 U.S.C. § 1162 and 28 U.S.C. § 1360). Public Law 280 is the statute discussed in Bryan v. Itasca County, 426 U.S. 373, 96 S.Ct. 2102, 48 L.Ed.2d 710 (1976), a case on which the Aroostook Band relies. Bryan addressed the part of the statute that gave certain states 51 jurisdiction over civil causes of action between Indians or to which Indians are parties which arise in . . . Indian country . . . 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. 52 28 U.S.C. § 1360(a). The Court found this statute did not clearly give states civil regulatory jurisdiction over Indians, and it interpreted the ambiguity for the Indians' benefit by precluding the application of a state property tax. See Bryan, 426 U.S. at 392-93, 96 S.Ct. 2102. 53 In finding Public Law 280 ambiguous, the Court relied on reasons that are inapplicable to MICSA's § 1725(a). First, the Court examined Public Law 280's legislative history and concluded that its civil law provisions were primarily designed to address the lack of adequate Indian forums for resolving private legal disputes. Id. at 383, 96 S.Ct. 2102; see also id. at 379-87, 96 S.Ct. 2102. Viewed in this light, when Public Law 280 gave force to the civil laws of [the] State pertaining to private persons or private property, 28 U.S.C. § 1360(a), it was merely providing state rules of decision and a state forum for private disputes, and it was not attempting to infringe more deeply on tribal sovereignty. Bryan, 426 U.S. at 383-84, 96 S.Ct. 2102. MICSA has no such legislative history, nor does it contain similar language specifically addressed to private legal disputes. Cf. Narragansett, 449 F.3d at 28 (noting the narrowness of Public Law 280). 54 More importantly, the Court in Bryan stressed that Public Law 280 lacked any conferral of state jurisdiction over the tribes themselves. 426 U.S. at 389, 96 S.Ct. 2102. In contrast, § 1725(a) expressly does apply to Indian tribes in addition to their members. 55 The Aroostook Band also cites to Menominee Tribe of Indians v. United States, 391 U.S. 404, 88 S.Ct. 1705, 20 L.Ed.2d 697 (1968), but Menominee does not assist the tribe. Menominee involved a federal statute, the Menominee Indian Termination Act of 1954, 68 Stat. 250 (repealed 1973), which stated that the laws of the several States shall apply to the [Menominee] tribe and its members in the same manner as they apply to other citizens or persons within their jurisdiction. 391 U.S. at 410, 88 S.Ct. 1705 (internal quotation marks omited) (quoting 25 U.S.C. § 899 (repealed 1973)). The Supreme Court refused to read this language as abrogating certain hunting and fishing rights that the Menominee Tribe had obtained in an 1854 treaty. Id. at 412-13, 88 S.Ct. 1705. The Aroostook Band asks us to reach a comparable result here as it contends that the language in the Termination Act is similar to the language in MICSA. 56 We disagree and find Menominee not only easily distinguishable, but in fact supportive of our reading of MICSA. Menominee's holding is not that the Termination Act alone was too unclear to abrogate aspects of tribal sovereignty. Instead, Menominee held that the Termination Act needed to be considered in pari materia with Public Law 280, which was contemporaneously passed and which explicitly said it was not interfering with Indian hunting and fishing rights granted by treaty. Id. at 410-11. The combination of these two statutes created enough ambiguity to favor preservation of Indian rights. With MICSA there is no similar federal statute, passed roughly contemporaneously, that could create a comparable ambiguity. To the contrary, the federal statutory scheme is a consistent whole on the issue in question. 57 Nor is this the sole fact that distinguishes Menominee. For instance, the Termination Act was abrogating a treaty right, which meant that rules of statutory construction favoring Indians were bolstered by the rule that the intention to abrogate or modify a treaty is not to be lightly imputed to . . . Congress. Id. at 413, 88 S.Ct. 1705 (quoting Pigeon River Improvement, Slide & Boom Co. v. Charles W. Cox, Ltd., 291 U.S. 138, 160, 54 S.Ct. 361, 78 L.Ed. 695 (1934)) (internal quotation marks omitted). By contrast, this case does not involve any treaty. Additionally, the Menominee Court drew support from statements by the Termination Act's chief sponsor; he had declared that the act `in no way violates any treaty obligation with this tribe.' Id. (quoting 100 Cong. Rec. 8537, 8538 (1954) (statement of Sen. Watkins)). The Aroostook Band has pointed to no legislative history for MICSA that is similarly so on point. 58 The Supreme Court's decision in South Carolina v. Catawba Indian Tribe, Inc., 476 U.S. 498, 106 S.Ct. 2039, 90 L.Ed.2d 490 (1986), puts Menominee in context and further confirms our reading of MICSA. Catawba interpreted a statute virtually identical to the Termination Act in Menominee. See Catawba Indian Tribe Division of Assets Act, Pub.L. No. 86-622, 73 Stat. 592 (1959) (repealed 1993). That Catawba statute declared: [T]he [Catawba] tribe and its members shall not be entitled to [certain federal services] . . ., and the laws of the several States shall apply to them in the same manner they apply to other persons or citizens within their jurisdiction. 25 U.S.C. § 935 (repealed 1993); see also Catawba, 476 U.S. at 505, 106 S.Ct. 2039. Without a contemporaneously passed statute like Public Law 280 to add ambiguity, the Supreme Court found it unmistakably clear that state laws apply to the Catawba Tribe and its members in precisely the same fashion that they apply to others. Catawba, 476 U.S. at 505-06, 106 S.Ct. 2039; see also id. at 509 n. 20, 106 S.Ct. 2039 (distinguishing Menominee on this basis). MICSA is similarly clear. 59