Carcieri v. Salazar

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (July 20, 2007)

The Supreme Court ruled today that the Interior Department erred in putting a parcel of land into trust for an American Indian tribe not recognized in the the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

In 1991, the Narragansett Indian Tribe purchased a 31-acre parcel of land in Charlestown, R.I., to build a housing complex for the elderly. In 1998, the U.S. Department of the Interior, acting at the tribe’s request, moved to take the land into federal trust, thereby placing it largely under federal and tribal control. However, Rhode Island officials opposed the move, claiming that the department lacked the proper authority because the Narragansett tribe was not recognized until nearly 50 years after the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act took effect.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island upheld the action, stating that Rhode Island was taking an unnecessarily narrow view of the law.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld the district court’s decision and approved of its reasoning. In seeking Supreme Court review to determine whether the time of tribal recognition should be dispositive on this issue, Rhode Island noted that “the future allocation of civil and criminal jurisdiction between states and tribes over a potentially unlimited amount of land hangs in the balance.”

On Feb. 24, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed.

“We agree with petitioners and hold that, for purposes of §479, the phrase ‘now under Federal jurisdiction’ refers to a tribe that was under federal jurisdiction at the time of the statute’s enactment,” wrote Justice Clarence Thomas in the 6-3 majority opinion. “As a result, §479 limits the secretary’s authority to taking land into trust for the purpose of providing land to members of a tribe that was under federal jurisdiction when the IRA was enacted in June 1934.”

Justice Stephen G. Breyer joined but also filed a concurrence. Justice David H. Souter concurred in part and dissented in part, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice John Paul Stevens dissented.

“The plain text of the Act clearly authorizes the Secretary to take land into trust for Indian tribes as well as individual Indians, and it places no temporal limitation on the definition of ‘Indian tribe,’” Stevens wrote.

Question presented: Whether the Narrangansett Tribe may receive benefits under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 if the Tribe was not federally recognized on the date of enactment, and whether the Rhode Island Indian Claims Settlement Act foreclosed the Tribe’s right to exercise sovereignty over land in the state.