Court Opinion

ID: 9791264
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:08:20.048461+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:35.116495
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
Dissent on denial of petition for rehearing.
A majority of four has decided not to grant a rehearing, despite the numerous good points raised by the petitioners in their briefs in support of their petition. Moreover, the majority has deigned not to respond to my dissenting opinion, and it now appears that the majority has also deigned not to respond to the petitioners. Not one page, not one paragraph, not even one sentence has been expended in an attempt to respond to the petitioners’ supporting brief. Fortunately, this Court is not the only court to which the defendants may resort. The federal courts are prepared to remedy that which has been improperly done in the name of federal law. For sixteen years I have been mindful of the words of caution which Justice Bakes, joined in dissent by Justice McQuade, addressed to an equally non-responsive majority:
I fear that the majority’s decision today is only the conclusion of round one of appellant’s case. Round two will be an action under the Uniform Post Conviction Procedures Act, I.C. § 19-4901 et seq. on the ground that appellant’s constitutional rights were violated because of the due process argument and on the ground of competency of counsel for failure to assign as error the obvious defect in this case. If round two proves unfruitful for the defendant, then round three will be a petition in the federal courts under 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254 to set aside the conviction. State courts often bemoan the intervention of the federal courts in state cases, but so long as highly prejudicial errors, ... remain uncorrected in state courts it is probably a good thing that federal courts are available to correct such mistakes.
State v. Swenor, 96 Idaho 327, 334, 528 P.2d 671, 678 (1974) (footnote omitted).
No purpose will be served by reiteration of the correct analysis presented in my dissent. However, excerpts from the defendants’ brief in support of their petition for rehearing are presented as suggestive of the enormity of the error in the majority opinion which flies directly in the face of California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202, 107 S.Ct. 1083, 94 L.Ed.2d 244 (1987):
ARGUMENT I.
THERE IS NO JURISDICTIONAL BASIS TO IMPOSE CIVIL/REGULATORY LAWS SUCH AS I.C. 18-8002 UPON INDIANS IN INDIAN COUNTRY.
I.C. 49-357, the predecessor of I.C. 18-8002, was an administrative statute which provided for hearings before the Department of Motor Vehicles. I.C. 18-8002 provides for civil adjudicatory hear*1020ings. Although both statutes were/are regulatory, neither statute can assert jurisdiction over Indians in Indian Country.
Accession to and assumption by Idaho of jurisdiction for criminal enforcement and punishment of motor vehicles offenses on Indian reservations (State v. Michael, supra), does not, and cannot reserve subsequent jurisdictional power for the state to impose a law such as I.C. 18-8002, which is civil/regulatory in nature, [carries a civil] penalty, and [is] express[ly civil by] legislative designation.
The United States Supreme Court made it clear in Cabazon, supra, that P.L. 280 did not authorize the states to enforce civil/regulatory laws upon Indians in Indian Country. When the Indian Civil Rights Act (ICRA) repealed P.L. 280, ... the ICRA expressly barred the states from asserting any new jurisdiction over Indians in Indian Country without permission of the tribes.
I.C. 18-8002 was drafted after the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA), but before the United States Supreme Court undertook to explain the scope and impact of the ICRA’s repeal of P.L. 280. Without the benefit of the clarification provided in Cabazon, supra, the Idaho legislature has considered itself to have jurisdiction to impose a civil/regulatory law upon Indians in Indian Country, and has expressly directed that I.C. 18-8002 be distinguished as civil, noting the statute to be ‘separate and apart’ from other sanctions or laws. It is inconsequential that I.C. 18-8002 might otherwise be considered a criminal statute, since the legislature has explicitly provided for civil penalties____
The State has advanced a recent Idaho decision in support of its contention of state power to impose the Implied Consent law upon the Appellants. Yet, the Woolery case does not fortify the State’s position, since Woolery [only] represents a narrow holding that I.C. 18-8002 does not restrict ‘... the ability of a police officer to obtain evidence of a more serious crime of vehicular manslaughter (18-4006), following the reasoning in Schmerber v. California.’ (cites omitted).
The major distinguishing factor between Woolery and the case at bar is that in the instance case, the state’s power to impose a law such as I.C. 18-8002 upon Indians in Indian Country is challenged as violative of federal Indian law and Indian treaty rights, not constitutional rights. The instant case asks whether the new state law, even if valid against non-Indians, meets federal prerequisites to have any effect at all in Indian Country, thereby defeating any argument of this issue being moot.
Appellants respectfully clarify their position that the state of Idaho does not maintain jurisdiction over them via I.C. 18-8004 (Driving Under the Influence), for purposes of attaching a subsequent jurisdictional premise for new, post ICRA laws that are otherwise proscribed by federal legislation____ Such grounds for jurisdiction equate to “bootstrapping” in the face of the explicit congressional determinative that from the Act’s effective date on, states may no longer acquire new jurisdiction over Indians in Indian Country; unless and until consent is acquired from the respective tribes.
Appellants assert that since I.C. 18-8002 in its present substance and form does not comport with a criminal statute; and since the state of Idaho has failed to adhere to the statutory requisites of the ICRA, jurisdiction cannot properly be had over the Appellants. From this, any evidence obtained as a result of an improper exercise of such jurisdiction, may not be used against the Appellants.
ARGUMENT II.
THE SUPPRESSION OF APPELLANTS’ BREATH TEST RESULTS IS NOT A MOOT ISSUE WHEN THE STATE LACKS JURISDICTION TO REGULATE BREATH TESTING.
If the state’s request that Appellants submit to the breath test violates the Treaty of 1855 between the Nez Perce *1021and the United States, P.L. 280, and I.C. 67-5101, then the issue as to whether the breath test results should be suppressed has not been rendered moot. Appellants submission to the breath test is not analogous to voluntarily submitting oneself to a court lacking jurisdiction. Absent any advice to the Appellants that the state lacked jurisdiction to suspend their driving privileges upon refusal, Appellants’ ‘submission’ was coerced by the threat of sanctions for refusal, and could not have been knowingly and voluntarily waived.
If I.C. 18-8002 is criminally applied to Indians on Reservations, but applied civilly to non-Indians, then the Indian Appellants’ rights to equal protection under the laws of the state have been violated.
CONCLUSION
For all of the foregoing reasons, Appellants respectfully request that the breath results be suppressed and their convictions overturned.
Supplemental Brief of Petitioners in Support of Petition for Rehearing, 1-4.
The majority opinion and its author are not remiss in explaining the issue. The statement of the issue, found at page three of the slip opinion, is concise and to the point:
McCormack specifically reserved a challenge to the use of the breath test as being beyond the jurisdiction granted to the state of Idaho, and Cree specifically reserved the right to appeal the district court’s decision denying his motion to suppress the breath test because he was an Indian arrested within the boundaries of a reservation. In addition, Cree reserved the issue of the increased suspension period in I.C. § 18-8002.
(Footnotes omitted.)
The majority opinion also does a service by including the text of I.C. § 18-8002 on page four, and explaining what civil penalties that section includes. In addition, the majority dutifully discusses the rule of construction with respect to Indian affairs on page six. All federal and state laws should be construed in favor of the Indian Nations and their autonomy. And, as a final note in praise of the majority opinion, it also correctly reports that the Indian Civil Rights Act demands that the Indian Nations be asked before any State assumes jurisdiction over Indian affairs.
But putting all accolades aside, there are some serious inconsistencies and omissions in the opinion, which the majority appears to ignore. First, the majority states on page two that the petitioners “voluntarily submitted” to an evidentiary test. On the other hand, on the next page of the opinion the majority states that the petitioners were arrested and taken into custody. The coercion involved in a vehicle stop, followed by arrests, does not to my mind suggest a voluntary act on the part of those who are arrested. In fact, I firmly believe that few if any citizens of this or any other state (or Nation) can characterize such interaction with the police as voluntary.
Second, the opinion states on page nine that a doubling of the license suspension period was not a “substantial change in the law or new assumption of jurisdiction requiring tribal consent.” If that is not a substantial change, then what does the opinion suggest would be a substantial change? By omitting all discussion of what constitutes a substantial change, in the law, and by not citing to any authority, the majority’s argument that no substantial change occurred in essence is no more than sheer ipse dixit. Does the majority considers the felony penalty for a third DUI to be the sort of change in penalty requiring tribal consent? For a discussion of recent felony DUI cases, see State v. Craig, 117 Idaho 983, 793 P.2d 215 (1990), and State v. Bever, 118 Idaho 80, 794 P.2d 1136 (1990).
On the same page the majority acknowledges that the petitioners characterized the distinction between the implied consent statute and the driving under the influence statute as a narrow one. While the petitioners did in fact assert this in one of their briefs, this Court’s penchant for adopting the n.ischaracterizatio" of the law tl't is placed before it by the parties is not sound. See also Ochoa v. Idaho Special Insur*1022ance Fund, 118 Idaho 71, 794 P.2d 1127 (1990). The distinction between a criminal statute and a statute that carries only civil penalties is by no means narrow. This is especially so when the underlying issue is whether an Idaho state court has jurisdiction over the enforcement of the civil statute.
No authority is cited on page nine for the notion that the civil sanction contained in the implied consent law is somehow an integral part of the criminal laws on drunk driving. This argument by conclusion is continued by the majority on page eleven, where the opinion concludes that jurisdiction over criminal law must provide the State with jurisdiction over this civil law. Again, no authority is cited, and no meaningful discussion is provided.
On the same page the conclusion is uttered that the suppression issue is moot, because the petitioners voluntarily submitted to the evidentiary tests. ' Such appears to be an appellate finding, and also one which is unsubstantiated.
In conclusion, although the majority opinion presents pleasant and easy reading, there is reason to fear that is so only because it lacks analytical substance and thought. The majority does not answer the dissent, or the petitioners’ new call for a second and more incisive examination of the statutory scheme of Idaho and the Congressional authorization to the states. As earlier pointed out herein, the philosophy of Justice Bakes in Swenor in all probability will serve to redress the substantial inroad this Court’s opinion today does to Cabazon:
State courts often bemoan the intervention of the federal courts in state cases, but so long as highly prejudicial errors ... remain uncorrected in state courts it is probably a good thing that federal courts are available to correct such mistakes.
State v. Swenor, 96 Idaho at 334, 528 P.2d at 678 (Bakes, J., dissenting, joined by McQuade, J.).