Court Opinion

ID: 9430548
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:30:02.720516+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:40.798370
License: Public Domain

Justice Rehnquist,
with whom Justice Brennan and Justice Stevens join,
dissenting.
North Dakota law provides that in order for an Indian tribe such as petitioner to avail itself of the jurisdiction of North Dakota courts as a plaintiff, it must also accept the jurisdiction of those courts when it is properly named as a defendant *894in them. This Court holds that such a rule — which would commend itself to most people as eminently fair — is preempted by federal law. To support this conclusion the Court advances two arguments: first, pre-emption by Pub. L. 280, and, second, the “overshadowing” of the state interest by “longstanding federal and tribal interests.” Ante, at 884. Neither by themselves nor in the rather awkward juxtaposition in which the Court places them are these arguments persuasive.
The Court’s argument based on Pub. L. 280 consists of two assertions: (1) Pub. L. 280 pre-empts Chapter 27-19’s disclaimer of pre-existing jurisdiction because the federal statute establishes a “comprehensive” legislative plan to govern Indian matters, and Chapter 27-19’s disclaimer is incompatible with the plan’s general purpose to authorize the assumption of state jurisdiction over Indian country, ante, at 884-885; and (2) the initial failure of Pub. L. 280 to authorize a disclaimer of jurisdiction, combined with the subsequent authorization of such disclaimer in the 1968 amendments with respect to jurisdiction assumed pursuant to Pub. L. 280, evidence a congressional intent to forbid the disclaimer of jurisdiction assumed prior to the passage of Pub. L. 280. Ante, at 885-887.
The Court provides no support for its assertion that Pub. L. 280 establishes a “comprehensive” federal scheme that pre-empts any state law that may inhibit the accomplishment of its general purpose. The Court’s citation to Kennerly v. District Court of Montana, 400 U. S. 423, 427 (1971) (per curiam), is unhelpful; the Court there was describing the “comprehensive and detailed” scrutiny that Congress appeared to give in deciding whether or not to eliminate federal barriers to state jurisdiction over Indian matters, and not the nature of Pub. L. 280. In addition, the brevity of Pub. L. 280, its 1968 amendments, and the relevant legislative history belie the Court’s assertion that these statutes establish a “comprehensive” plan like statutes that occupy a given field *895of regulation. Cf. Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U. S. 238, 248 (1984). Public Law 280 does little more than make a general pronouncement that certain federal barriers to state jurisdiction have been eliminated. See Act of Aug. 15, 1953, ch. 505, § 7, 67 Stat. 590. Nor does the legislative history, the 1968 amendments, or their legislative history provide any additions that transform the general pronouncement into a “comprehensive” plan. See S. Rep. No. 699, 83d Cong., 1st Sess. (1953); Pub. L. 90-284, Title IV, §§402, 403, 82 Stat. 79; S. Rep. No. 721, 90th Cong., 1st Sess. (1967).
There is also nothing inconsistent between the State’s disclaimer of pre-existing jurisdiction and the purpose of Pub. L. 280. Congress stated that Pub. L. 280 was designed to accomplish two general purposes:
“First, withdrawal of Federal responsibility for Indian affairs wherever practicable; and second, termination of the subjection of Indians to Federal laws applicable to Indians as such.” S. Rep. No. 699, supra, at 3.
The statute’s elimination of certain federal barriers to the assertion of state jurisdiction over Indian country was an important means of furthering these goals. But the statute’s complete silence on the disclaimer of state jurisdiction cannot reasonably be taken to imply an intent to forbid such disclaimer. This is especially true with respect to jurisdiction lawfully assumed before the passage of Pub. L. 280, since disclaimer of such jurisdiction would certainly have been entirely proper before passage of the Act.
Nor can any congressional intent to forbid the disclaimer of jurisdiction asserted prior to the passage of Pub. L. 280 be reasonably inferred from the subsequent authorization of such disclaimer with respect to jurisdiction asserted pursuant to Pub. L. 280. This Court has long recognized that federal law has a “generally interstitial character,” Richards v. United States, 369 U. S. 1, 7 (1962), in the sense that Congress generally enacts legislation against the background of existing state law. See, e. g., Burks v. Lasker, 441 U. S. *896471, 478 (1979), citing P. Bator, P. Mishkin, D. Shapiro, & H. Wechsler, Hart & Wechsler’s The Federal Courts and the Federal System 470-471 (2d ed. 1973). An appreciation for this traditional understanding of the nature of state power does not render superfluous the congressional authorization of disclaimer in the 1968 amendments to Pub. L. 280. See Pub. L. 90-284, Title IV, §§402, 403, 82 Stat. 79. Since the 1968 amendments were generally designed to impose a limitation on the ability of state legislatures to assert jurisdiction over Indian country, Congress could reasonably have intended the provision authorizing the disclaimer of previously asserted jurisdiction to encourage such disclaimer with a concomitant retention of a more limited form of jurisdiction. That the disclaimer provision referred only to jurisdiction asserted pursuant to Pub. L. 280 says nothing about congressional intent as to jurisdiction lawfully asserted in some other way. Given the traditional powers of state government, it is unreasonable to interpret such silence as evidence of an intent to forbid the States to disclaim jurisdiction asserted in another way. I find the Court’s pre-emption analysis to be quite unconvincing.
I think the Court’s reasoning supporting its conclusion that federal and tribal interests “overshadow” the State’s interest in fair play for litigants fares no better than its reasoning about Pub. L. 280. The requirement that a tribe consent to the general civil jurisdiction of state courts as a quid pro quo for access to those courts as a plaintiff seems entirely fair and evenhanded to me. Nothing in Pub. L. 280 or any other federal statute requires a State to accept jurisdiction over Indian country in the first place. Nor has such an obligation been created as a matter of federal case law dealing with the Indians. To the contrary, all the cases and statutes with which I am familiar speak only to the limitations on the assertion of jurisdiction over these matters. Thus, because Congress and this Court have left the States free to bar access entirely by simply not asserting jurisdiction over Indian *897country at all, I do not see how any “federal interest” precludes them from establishing conditions on the assertion of jurisdiction, and thereby on access to state courts, as North Dakota has done here: the employment of the North Dakota courts in matters in which the tribe has an interest shall not be solely at the option of the tribe.
I think there is nothing in Pub. L. 280 nor in federal Indian policy that prohibits North Dakota from applying its statute in the manner in which it did in this case, and I therefore dissent from the Court’s contrary conclusion.