''Okla. Tax Commission v. Citizen Band, Potawatomi Indian Tribe of Okla.'', 498 U.S. 505 (1991), was a case in which the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

held that the tribe was not subject to state sales taxes on sales made to tribal members, but that they were liable for taxes on sales to non-tribal members.

Background

The Potawatomi was originally from the

Wabash River The Wabash River ( French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows fro ...

area of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

and was known as the Mission Band of Potawatomi. After 1833, they were relocated to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

, where they lost most of their land due to the allotment system. In 1867, in a treaty with Kansas, the tribe sold their land in that state in order to purchase land in the

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United St ...

(now

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

) and took United States citizenship. They have henceforth been known as the

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people located in Oklahoma. The Potawatomi are traditionally an Algonquian-speaking Eastern Woodlands tribe. They have 29,155 enrolled tribal members, of whom 10,312 live in ...

District Court decision

The tribe, for many years has sold cigarettes on tribal lands without collecting Oklahoma's cigarette tax. In 1987, the Oklahoma Tax Commission demanded that the tribe pay $2.7 million for taxes due from 1982 to 1986. The tribe sued in the

U.S. District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

. The District Court denied the tribe's motion for summary judgment and following a trial, held that the tribe's sales to tribal members was immune from state taxation, but that sales to non-tribal members could be taxed.

Circuit Court decision

The tribe appealed, asserting that they enjoyed total tribal sovereign immunity for sales on tribal lands. The State of Oklahoma stated that the tribe had waived its immunity by filing the case in the district court. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Oklahoma lacked the authority to collect any state sales taxes on tribal lands, whether to tribal members or non-tribal members. Oklahoma appealed and the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

granted

certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of an English prerogative writ, issued by a superior court to direct that the record of ...

Opinion of the Court

Affirmed in part, reversed in part.

Chief Justice Rehnquist William Hubbs Rehnquist ( ; October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney and jurist who served on the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an Associate justice of the Supreme Court of ...

delivered the opinion for a unanimous court. Rehnquist first stated that the tribe does not waive immunity by instituting an action in the district court, noting that the court had previously determined that tribes were immune from counter-claims or cross-suits, absent Congressional authorization to the contrary. He next addressed the state's argument that tribal land held in trust was not the same as reservation land, and found the state's position unpersuasive. Tribal land, whether held in trust or as part of a reservation, is set apart for the use of the tribe, and as such qualifies for immunity. The court then held that the Tenth Circuit erred in holding that tribe did not have to collect sales taxes on cigarettes sold to non-members.

Concurring Opinion

Justice Stevens John Paul Stevens (April 20, 1920 – July 16, 2019) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-olde ...

issued a concurring opinion that mainly discussed the question of immunity as applied to the facts of the case.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oklahoma Tax Comm'n V. Citizen Band Of Potawatomi Tribe Of Okla. 1991 in United States case law United States Constitution Article Three case law United States Supreme Court cases Citizen Potawatomi Nation United States Native American tax case law United States tribal sovereign immunity case law Taxation in Oklahoma Legal history of Oklahoma United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court