Court Opinion

ID: 8407707
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-02 16:31:59.662671+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:47:29.754405
License: Public Domain

GOULD, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
1 concur and comment on the Montana exceptions. Since Montana was declared the law of the land by the Supreme Court in 1981, Indian nations, non-Indians who live or do business on Indian lands, and others who interact with Indian nations have struggled to define the bounds for the consent and tribal integrity exceptions to Montana’s general rule restricting Indian nations’ jurisdiction over non-Indians. We are not dealing with a frivolous position by the tribes, but with the line between Indian sovereignty and freedom of action of those whose lives cross Indian territory. I agree with our ruling on discovery on the second Montana exception, for if the trains crossing a tribe’s reservation carry toxic or dangerous chemicals, nuclear waste, biological dangers, or other threats to the reservation, then the tribe has a right to know what company it keeps, and then to assess whether any taxing strategy could fairly cover the tribe’s protective costs. Only on a full record can it fairly be decided whether Montana’s second exception can be satisfied.