Opinion ID: 145311
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Supreme Court's Decision in Sherrill

Text: At issue in SHERRILL were parcels of land in the city of Sherrill (located in Oneida County, New York) that had originally been part of the Oneida Nation reservation as established by the Treaty of Fort Schuyler, but that had been transferred by the Oneida Nation to one of its members in 1805, and then in 1807 sold by that person to a non-Indian. Sherrill, 544 U.S. at 211, 125 S.Ct. 1478. The OIN re-acquired these parcels on the open market in 1997 and 1998. Id. In SHERRILL, the OIN asserted that these properties were exempt from taxation, arguing that because the Court in [ Oneida County, N.Y. v. Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 470 U.S. 226, 105 S.Ct. 1245, 84 L.Ed.2d 169 (1985) [4] ] recognized the Oneidas' aboriginal title to their ancient reservation land and because the Tribe has now acquired the specific parcels involved in this suit in the open market, it has unified fee and aboriginal title and may now assert sovereign dominion over the parcels. Id. at 213, 125 S.Ct. 1478. Based on that contention, the OIN had brought suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York seeking injunctive and declaratory relief that would require recognition of its present and future sovereign immunity from local taxation on the land. Id. at 214, 125 S.Ct. 1478. We agreed on the basis that land in Indian country ... is not subject to state taxation absent express congressional authorization. Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 337 F.3d at 154 (citing, inter alia, Worcester v. State of Ga., 31 U.S. 515, 557, 6 Pet. 515, 8 L.Ed. 483 (1832), White Mountain Apache Tribe v. Bracker, 448 U.S. 136, 151, 100 S.Ct. 2578, 65 L.Ed.2d 665 (1980), and Montana v. Blackfeet Tribe of Indians, 471 U.S. 759, 765, 105 S.Ct. 2399, 85 L.Ed.2d 753 (1985)). The Supreme Court reversed. It reject[ed] the unification theory of OIN and the United States and h[e]ld that `standards of federal Indian law and federal equity practice' preclude[d] the Tribe from rekindling embers of sovereignty that long ago grew cold. Sherrill, 544 U.S. at 214, 125 S.Ct. 1478. Noting that justifiable expectations, grounded in two centuries of New York's exercise of regulatory jurisdiction, until recently uncontested by OIN, merit heavy weight, id. at 215-16, 125 S.Ct. 1478, the Court concluded: [T]he distance from 1805 to the present day, the Oneidas' long delay in seeking equitable relief against New York or its local units, and developments in the city of Sherrill spanning several generations, evoke the doctrines of laches, acquiescence, and impossibility, and render inequitable the piecemeal shift in governance this suit seeks unilaterally to initiate. Id. at 221, 125 S.Ct. 1478.