Oliphant V. Suquamish Indian Tribe - Court Decision

Court Decision

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Oliphant's appeal, citing the Civil Rights Act of 1968 in their decision. The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the lower courts. The decision stated that Indian tribal courts do not have inherent criminal jurisdiction to try and to punish non-Indians, and hence may not assume such jurisdiction unless specifically authorized to do so by Congress. The decision stated that tribal powers could be divested both explicitly and implicitly, if they are in violation of their status of "domestic dependent nations."

Read more about this topic:  Oliphant V. Suquamish Indian Tribe

Famous quotes containing the words court and/or decision:

    “Follow a shaddow, it still flies you;
    Seeme to flye it, it will pursue:
    So court a mistris, shee denyes you;
    Let her alone, shee will court you.
    Say, are not women truely, then,
    Stil’d but the shaddowes of us men?
    At morne, and even, shades are longest;
    At noone, they are or short, or none:
    So men at weakest, they are strongest,
    But grant us perfect, they’re not knowne.
    Say, are not women truely, then,
    Stil’d but the shaddowes of us men?”
    —Ben Jonson (1572–1637)

    “Because of these convictions, I made a personal decision in the 1964 Presidential campaign to make education a fundamental issue and to put it high on the nation’s agenda. I proposed to act on my belief that regardless of a family’s financial condition, education should be available to every child in the United States—as much education as he could absorb.”
    —Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)