New Mexico et al. v. Mescalero Apache Tribe (462 U.S. 324)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 13, 1983 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 462 U.S. 324 · 103 S. Ct. 2378
- Decided
- June 13, 1983
- Term
- October Term 1982
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Marshall
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court. We are called upon to decide in this case whether a State may restrict an Indian Tribe’s regulation of hunting and fishing on its reservation. With extensive federal assistance and supervision, the Mescalero Apache Tribe has established a comprehensive scheme for managing the reservation’s fish and wildlife resources. Federally approved tribal ordinances regulate in detail the conditions under which both members of the Tribe and nonmembers may hunt and fish. New Mexico seeks to apply its own laws to hunting and fishing by nonmembers on the reservation. We hold that this application of New Mexico’s hunting and fishing laws is pre-empted by the operation of federal law. The Mescalero Apache Tribe (Tribe) resides on a reservation located within Otero County in south central New Mexico. The reservation, which represents only a small portion of the aboriginal Mescalero domain, was created by a succession of Executive Orders promulgated in the 1870’s and 1880’s. The present reservation comprises more than 460,000 acres, of which the Tribe owns all but 193.85 acres. Approximately 2,000 members of the Tribe reside on the reservation, along with 179 non-Indians, including resident federal employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service. The Tribe is organized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, 48…
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