California State Board of Equalization et al. v. Chemehuevi Indian Tribe (474 U.S. 9)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 4, 1985 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 474 U.S. 9 · 106 S. Ct. 289
- Decided
- November 4, 1985
- Term
- October Term 1985
- Vote
- 5–4
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. Since 1959 California has imposed an excise tax on the distribution of cigarettes. Respondent Chemehuevi Indian Tribe sells cigarettes on its reservation in southeastern California. The Tribe originally remitted the state tax to petitioner State Board of Equalization (petitioner) insofar as that tax was imposed on the distribution of cigarettes to non-Indian purchasers. But in 1977 the Tribe enacted a cigarette tax of its own that was the equivalent of the California tax, and then ceased collecting and remitting the state tax. When California sought to obtain the unremitted tax from the Tribe, the Tribe brought an action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California requesting a declaratory judgment that petitioner could not lawfully apply the state tax to cigarettes sold by the Tribe to non-Indian purchasers. Respondent Tribe also sought an injunction preventing petitioner from enforcing the state cigarette tax against it. Petitioner counterclaimed for damages in the amount of back taxes claimed to be owed by respondent Tribe. The District Court held that petitioner’s counterclaim was barred by sovereign immunity, 492 F. Supp. 55 (1979), but also held that California could lawfully require the Tribe to collect cigarette excise taxes imposed on cigarettes that it sold to non-Indians. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the first…
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