Cabazon Band of Mission Indians v. Smith

249 F.3d 1101, 2001 WL 521436
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 17, 2001
DocketNo. 99-55229
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 249 F.3d 1101 (Cabazon Band of Mission Indians v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cabazon Band of Mission Indians v. Smith, 249 F.3d 1101, 2001 WL 521436 (9th Cir. 2001).

Opinions

Opinion by Judge T.G. NELSON; Dissent by Judge W.D. BROWNING

T.G. NELSON, Circuit Judge:

The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (the “Tribe”) appeals the district court’s order granting summary judgment to ap-pellees, officials of the Riverside County, California, Sheriffs Department (the “Sheriff’), in the Tribe’s suit challenging the application of certain provisions of the California Vehicle Code to tribal police vehicles traveling on public highways located off the reservation. We affirm.

I.

The essential facts of this case are undisputed. The Cabazon Indian Reservation is located in Southern California. The Tribe has a Public Safety Department which provides law enforcement services on the reservation. Armed and uniformed Cabazon public safety officers drive dark blue vehicles marked on the sides and the rear with the words “Tribal Law Enforcement” and with the name “Cabazon” marked on the sides.

The reservation consists of three non-contiguous parcels of land. Because of physical and geographical barriers, it is not possible to drive between the different parcels without leaving the reservation. Consequently, the Public Safety Department’s vehicles must drive on sections of public highways located off the reservation in order to provide law enforcement services to the entire reservation.

Prior to the instant conflict, the public safety vehicles had emergency light bars affixed to their roofs. However, various provisions of the California Vehicle Code limit the use or display of emergency light bars to “authorized emergency vehicles” performing emergency services.2 Moreover, only such “authorized emergency vehicles” are exempt from certain traffic safety regulations when responding to an emergency.3 On several occasions before the commencement of this suit, the Sheriff stopped Cabazon public safety officers driving their official vehicles on public highways located off the reservation and cited the officers for displaying emergency light bars, on the ground that the tribal vehicles were not “authorized emergency vehicles” within the meaning of the code.4 To avoid further conflict, the Tribe’s Director of Public Safety ordered the light bars removed. However, the director maintains that operating the public safety vehicles without light bars, or with covered light bars, threatens the safety of his officers and compromises their ability to perform their duties.

The Tribe and its Director of Public Safety, in his official capacity, filed suit in the United States District Court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against appellees individually and in their capacities as officials of the Riverside County Sheriffs Department. Plaintiffs argued, in the words of the district court, that “Cabazon Public Safety Department vehicles should be treated like those of other law enforcement agencies operating in California.”5 The Tribe sought, inter alia, a declaration that the sections'of the Califor[1104]*1104nia Vehicle Code regulating the use of emergency light bars were preempted by the Tribe’s sovereign authority to establish and operate a police department to enforce the criminal law on reservation lands and an injunction preventing the Sheriff from interfering with tribal public safety vehicles displaying emergency light bars when they travel between these noncontiguous parcels of reservation land.

The district court found, and the parties do not dispute, that the Cabazon Public Safety Department police vehicles do not fit within California’s definition of “authorized emergency vehicles,” contained in Section 165 of the Vehicle Code. The court also found that the “state interests in regulating the operation of emergency vehicles are sufficient to overcome whatever interference with tribal [law] enforcement efforts has been caused by precluding the use of light bars,” and, as a result, the “general federal policy of supporting tribal law enforcement efforts does not preempt valid state regulation of off-reservation activities in this situation.”6 Finally, it also found that application of the state’s vehicle code in this situation did not constitute “an undue or excessive burden on the Tribe’s ability to perform effectively its on-reservation law enforcement functions.”7 As a result, the court denied the Tribe’s motion for summary judgment on its claims and entered judgment for the Sheriff. That decision is the subject of the present appeal.8

II.

The district court’s order granting or denying summary judgment is reviewed de novo.9 Summary judgment is appropriate where “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact” and “the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.”10

III.

It may be helpful to begin our discussion of the law applicable to this complex area with a brief statement of what this case does not involve. We are not here dealing with an assertion of state law over Indians who undertake activity on an Indian reservation.11 Nor is this a case where the state seeks to reach non-Indians who undertake activity on an Indian reservation.12 Rather, this case involves the issue of whether a state may enforce its vehicle [1105]*1105code against tribal police vehicles when they travel on public highways located off the reservation.

The principle governing resolution of this case was announced in Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones (Mescalero I ).13 In that case, the Supreme Court stated that “[a]bsent express federal law to the contrary, Indians going beyond reservation boundaries have generally been held subject to non-discriminatory state law otherwise applicable to all citizens of the State.” 14 The Court then applied this principle to uphold New Mexico’s rights to collect a nondiscriminatory gross receipts tax from a ski resort owned and operated by the tribe but located off-reservation.15 In doing so, the Court reasoned that because “tribal activities conducted outside the reservation present different considerations [than those on the reservation],” the “[s]tate’s authority over Indians is yet more extensive over activities ... not on any reservation.”16 Furthermore, the Mescalero I Court concluded that this principle was not limited to the facts or particular context of the case before it.17

The Tribe’s claim that sections of the California Vehicle Code regulating the use of emergency light bars are preempted by the Tribe’s sovereign authority to establish and operate a police department ignores this principle governing a state’s regulatory authority over tribal activities off-reservation. The Tribe does not claim that a specific federal law expressly provides for the preemption of the vehicle code provisions at issue here; instead, it merely points to a number of federal laws that purportedly demonstrate a general federal policy of promoting tribal self-sufficiency and encouraging tribal law enforcement efforts.

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Prairie Band of Potawatomi Indians v. Wagnon
276 F. Supp. 2d 1168 (D. Kansas, 2003)
Prairie Band of Potawatomi Indians v. Pierce
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Cabazon Band Of Mission Indians v. Smith
249 F.3d 1101 (Ninth Circuit, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
249 F.3d 1101, 2001 WL 521436, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cabazon-band-of-mission-indians-v-smith-ca9-2001.