Justices to Consider Scope of Tribal Officers’ Police Powers

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up a case that could provide tribal law enforcement agents with broad authority to investigate “non-Indians” for crimes on tribal lands.

The question in the case the justices Friday agreed to hear is whether tribal authorities can temporarily stop and search a non-Indian suspected of breaking a state or federal law on a reservation.

The interaction of criminal law and tribal jurisdiction is complex. As the California-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit United States v. Cooley, U.S., No. 19-1414: “An Indian tribe’s authority to enforce criminal laws on tribal ...