NEVADA V. HICKS (99-1994) 533 U.S. 353 (2001)
196 F.3d 1020, reversed and remanded.
Syllabus
Opinion
[ Scalia ]
Concurrence
[ Souter ]
Concurrence
[ Ginsburg ]
Concurrence
[ Opinion of O’Connor ]
Concurrence
[ Stevens ]
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Ginsburg, J., concurring

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES


No. 99—1994

NEVADA, et al., PETITIONERS v.
FLOYD HICKS et al.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

[June 25, 2001]

Justice Ginsburg, concurring.

I join the Court’s opinion. As the Court plainly states, and as Justice Souter recognizes, the “holding in this case is limited to the question of tribal-court jurisdiction over state officers enforcing state law.” Ante, at 4, n. 2 (opinion of the Court); ante, at 2 (Souter, J., concurring). The Court’s decision explicitly “leave[s] open the question of tribal-court jurisdiction over nonmember defendants in general,” ante, at 4, n. 2, including state officials engaged on tribal land in a venture or frolic of their own, see ante, at 19 (a state officer’s conduct on tribal land “unrelated to [performance of his law-enforcement duties] is potentially subject to tribal control”).

I write separately only to emphasize that Strate v. A—1 Contractors, 520 U.S. 438 (1997), similarly deferred larger issues. Strate concerned a highway accident on a right-of-way over tribal land. For nonmember governance purposes, the accident site was equivalent to alienated, non-Indian land. Id., at 456. We held that the nonmember charged with negligent driving in Strate was not amenable to the Tribe’s legislative or adjudicatory authority. But we “express[ed] no view on the governing law or proper forum” for cases arising out of nonmember conduct on tribal land. Id., at 442. The Court’s opinion, as I understand it, does not reach out definitively to answer the jurisdictional questions left open in Strate.