Supreme Court turns down Indian Country taxation case as high-profile session continues
A crowd rallies at the U.S. Supreme Court on the evening of May 3, 2022, in protest of a draft decision to limit the reproductive rights of women. Photo by Indianz.Com WASHINGTON, D.C. — With about a month left in an already unusual session, the nation’s highest court has passed up a chance to address a long-standing issue affecting economic sovereignty in Indian Country. In an order on Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition in Albrecht v. Albrecht . The action, which came without explanation, lets stand a ruling from California that allows state and local governments to impose taxes on non-Indians who do business on Indian trust lands. The dispute affects about 500 individuals, organizations and business entities in Riverside County, home to more than a dozen tribes in the southern part of the state. The non-Indian interests had challenged taxes imposed on trust lands they lease, primarily from citizens of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians . In a decision issued last fall, the Court of Appeal of California, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two , upheld the taxes as legitimate. The ruling concluded that Riverside County’s efforts are not pre-empted by the federal government, in its role as trustee on Indian trust lands, and do not infringe on tribal sovereignty even though the tribe does not benefit economically. “The Agua Caliente tribe receives no portion of the revenues collected from the county’s possessory interest tax or the lease payments made pursuant to the leasing […]