Supreme Court says Kansas can tax fuel sold on reservations
SAM HANANEL(AP)
WASHINGTON - Kansas can tax fuel that is ultimately sold on American Indian reservations, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, dealing a blow to tribal members who claim the tax violates their sovereignty.
In a 7-2 vote, the high court said the state can tax distributors who sell fuel destined for an Indian-owned gas station near the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe's casino, about 15 miles north of Topeka, Kan.
The decision is an important victory for states trying to stem the loss of tax revenue as more goods and services are sold to businesses on Indian reservations.
Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said Kansas is not trying to regulate tribal activity but is simply taxing non-Indian companies based outside the reservation that distribute fuel to tribal operators.
"Kansas law makes clear that it is the distributor, rather than the retailer, that is liable to pay the motor fuel tax," Thomas wrote. "While the distributors are 'entitled' to pass along the cost of the tax to downstream purchasers ... they are not required to do so."
The ruling reversed a decision by the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the tax violated tribal sovereignty. The lower court said the fuel's value derived mostly from demand on the reservation.
Kansas officials praised the ruling, saying it would allow the state to use tax revenues to pay for maintenance on highways, roads and bridges.
"Today's ruling enables us to move forward and administer the law in a fair and consistent manner," said Revenue Secretary Joan Wagnon.
Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline said the court "gave proper balance to the relationship between Native American tribes and the state and recognized the importance of state sovereignty and authority."
But Zachariah Pahmahmie, chairman of the Potawatomi tribal council, called the decision part of a "misguided trend of indifference by conservative judges" toward Indian commerce issues.
"The court has glorified form over substance and permitted the state to violate tribal rights indirectly that the state could not violate directly," Pahmahmie said in a written statement.
The tribe had been collecting its own taxes on the fuel to help maintain the reservation's road system, recognized as one of worst in the nation.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Anthony M. Kennedy dissented, arguing that the fuel is "effectively double-taxed" and may force the tribe's gas station to operate at a deficit or go out of business.
Ginsburg also said Kansas is not gaining much through the tax - about $300,000 annually. But, in doing so, she wrote, the state is preventing the tribe from imposing its own tax.
The Justice Department had sided with the Potawatomi tribe, but thirteen other states that impose a motor fuel tax and have Indian reservations within their borders filed a friend-of-the-court brief backing Kansas.
The case is Wagnon v. Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, 04-631.
Link to Report
Nationhood threatened
Scott C. Barta(API)
With the many unilateral and illegal congressional acts, which have continually diminished nationhood of Indigenous Red “Indian” Nations and Peoples over the years, the 1988 “gaming act” (which required “tribes” to “get permission” from “state governors” in order to have a sovereign national economy, primarily casinos) seems to be one of the most dangerous to the survival of Indigenous Nationhood.
As “tribal councils” (established, again, by a unilateral and illegal act of congress in 1934 called the “Indian Reorganization Act”) began to develop a semblance of nation businesses and enterprises, challenges to this economy by “states” found the “tribes” in the racist court systems throughout the country. This lead directly to the December 6, 2005, “supreme court” decision against Indigenous Nationhood. This court decision directly violates Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which states “Treaties made with Indian Nations shall be the supreme law of the land, with the judges in every state bound thereby.” This is the same court that “voted” their “personal party lines” in the infamous 2000 election between Bush and Gore. It includes ‘justice of color’ Clarence “Long John” Thomas, who will no doubt continue to try to drag “Indians” into “minority” status, versus their “supreme law nationhood” standing.
1851 Treaty
Thanks to Scott Barta for sending this on.
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December 2005 Reports
Last updated on December 17, 2005