Unanimous: Supreme Court rules for tribes

“The Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday that a tribal police officer can temporarily detain and search non-Natives on public rights of way that go through tribal land.

The case, United States v. Cooley, involved Joshua James Cooley, a non-Native man parked on the side of Highway 212 that runs through the Crow Reservation in southeastern Montana. Crow tribal police officer James Saylor approached the truck and found “watery, bloodshot eyes” and two guns lying on the front seat of the vehicle.

After ordering Cooley out of the truck and a subsequent patdown search, Saylor saw a glass pipe and plastic bag containing meth inside the truck.

A federal grand jury indicted Cooley on drug and gun offenses but he moved to have the evidence found by Saylor suppressed claiming that it was found during an illegal search.

Justice Stephen Breyer cited a past case, Montana v. United States, in that a “tribe may also retain inherent power to exercise civil authority over the conduct of non Indians on fee lands within its reservation when that conduct threatens or has some direct effect on the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare of the tribe.”

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