Tribal Sovereignty Case Unites Supreme Court on Police Powers

American Indian tribes have won a small victory at the Supreme Court. In the case, U.S. v. Cooley, justices held that tribal police on a reservation can arrest and search people who are not Native American when there is probable cause to suspect them of a federal or state crime. The decision was unanimous, almost certainly for a quirky reason: The court’s liberals favor tribal sovereignty on reservations and the court’s conservatives favor expansive police power to stop and search. Conservatives also hate throwing out convictions on procedural grounds.

The case began in 2016. Late one February night in Montana, a Crow reservation police officer noticed a truck pulled over on U.S. 212, a highway that runs through the reservation. Inside was Joshua James Cooley. According to the officers, he had “watery, bloodshot eyes” and “appeared to be non-native.” The officer saw two semi-automatic rifles on the front seat. The officer ordered Cooley to get out of the truck, administered a pat-down search, and called for backup — a call that brought tribal, county, and federal Bureau of Indian Affairs officers to the scene.

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