Supreme Court backs Indigenous police authority on tribal lands

Unanimous decision holds that tribal officers have some power to search non-Indigenous people on Native reservations.

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday endorsed Indigenous tribal police powers in one of its most notable rulings this term, backing the authority of a tribal officer in Montana to stop and search a non-Native American motorist on a public road on reservation land in Montana. The justices ruled 9-0 against Joshua James Cooley in his effort to contest drug and weapons charges brought against him after a Crow tribal police officer found methamphetamine and firearms in his vehicle on a roadside on reservation land in 2016. The ruling means tribal police have at least some powers to conduct initial investigatory traffic stops involving non-tribe members. Writing for the court, Justice Stephen Breyer said that “no treaty or statute has explicitly divested Indian tribes of the policing authority at issue.”