Supreme Court of the United States
Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc.
May 26, 1998523 U.S. 751
Summary
The Supreme Court held that Indian tribes enjoy sovereign immunity from suits on contracts, whether governmental or commercial and whether made on or off a reservation, unless Congress has abrogated the immunity or the tribe waived it. Because neither had occurred, the Court reversed the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, which had allowed a breach-of-note suit against the Kiowa Tribe based on off-reservation commercial conduct. The Court acknowledged doubts about the doctrine's wisdom but deferred to Congress to reform it. Justice Stevens, dissenting, joined by Justices Thomas and Ginsburg, would have held that tribal immunity does not extend to purely off-reservation commercial conduct.
Holding
- Scope of tribal sovereign immunity from contract suits in state court.. As a matter of federal law, an Indian tribe is subject to suit only where Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its immunity; tribes enjoy immunity from suits on contracts, whether governmental or commercial and whether made on or off a reservation.
- Whether the Court should confine tribal immunity to reservations or noncommercial activities.. The Court declined to draw distinctions between on- and off-reservation or governmental and commercial activities, deferring to Congress's role in reworking tribal immunity.
Docket 96-1037
Cited authorities
- 28 U.S.C. § 1605
- 28 U.S.C. § 1607
- 28 U.S.C. §§ 1346
- 28 U.S.C. § 2674
- 88 Stat. 77
- 25 U.S.C. § 1451
- 28 U.S.C. §§ 1604
- 71 N.D. L. Rev. 41
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