Court Opinion

ID: 9758684
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:40:11.948024+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:53.898285
License: Public Domain

Justice EID,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment in part.
I agree with the majority's holding that tribal sovereign immunity applies to state investigatory enforcement actions as well as its adoption of a three-part test to determine whether a tribal entity acts as an arm of the tribe, and therefore join parts III and IV of the majority's opinion. I would find, however, that the tribal entities in this case have voluntarily produced sufficient information, including tribal constitutions, statutes, resolutions, correspondence, license applications, and licenses to conduct business, see maj. op. at 1104, 1115 (mentioning but not adopting the argument), to make the arm-of-the-tribe determination under the three-part test. Accordingly, I would remand the case to the trial court to make that determination based on the documents now in the record. Because it is not necessary to reach the additional issues addressed by the majority (and inserted into the case by the court of appeals), I concur in the judgment of the remainder of the majority's opinion.