Upper Skagit Indian Tribe v. Lundgren
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 21, 2018 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- May 21, 2018
- Term
- October Term 2017
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Gorsuch
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2017 1 Syllabus NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U.S. 321 , 337. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus UPPER SKAGIT INDIAN TRIBE v. LUNDGREN ET VIR CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF WASHINGTON No. 17–387. Argued March 21, 2018—Decided May 21, 2018 The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe purchased a roughly 40-acre plot of land and then commissioned a boundary survey. The survey convinced the Tribe that about an acre of its land lay on the other side of a boundary fence between its land and land owned by Sharline and Ray Lundgren. The Lundgrens filed a quiet title action in Washing- ton state court, invoking the doctrines of adverse possession and mu- tual acquiescence, but the Tribe asserted sovereign immunity from the suit. Ultimately, the State Supreme Court rejected the Tribe’s immunity claim and ruled for the Lundgrens, reasoning that, under County of Yakima v. Confederated Tribes and Bands of Yakima Na- tion, 502 U.S. 251 , tribal sovereign immunity does not apply to in rem suits. Held: Yakima addressed not the scope of tribal…
Excerpt of a 48,593-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.