Supreme Court says tribal police can detain non-tribal suspects navajotimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from navajotimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Advertisement: Cooley was indicted in federal district court on drug and gun charges, but moved to have the drug evidence suppressed. He argued that Saylor did not have the authority as a tribal police officer to investigate “nonapparent violations of state or federal law by a non-Indian on a public right-of-way crossing the reservation.” The district court agreed, and a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in March 2019, noting that Saylor made no attempt to determine whether Cooley was a tribal member or not. The full 9th Circuit refused to reconsider the ruling, which one dissenting judge said would “blow … a gaping hole in tribal law enforcement.”
June 1, 2021
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that tribal police can detain non-tribe members in certain circumstances, despite a general prohibition on tribal authorities imposing their law on others, because to do otherwise would make it hard for tribes to protect themselves from ongoing threats. (File photo by Vandana Ravikumar/Cronkite News)
WASHINGTON – Tribal police have the authority to detain non-Natives traveling through reservation land if the officer has a reasonable belief that the suspect violated state or federal law, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The unanimous ruling overturned lower courts that said a Crow police officer should not have held a nontribal member who was found to have drugs and weapons in his truck. The Supreme Court said that the lower courts’ rulings would “make it difficult for tribes to protect themselves against ongoing threats.”
Officer Saylor noted that Cooley’s eyes were bloodshot and he had firearms in the vehicle.
The officer called for backup, including an officer from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. They later found methamphetamine in the truck.
A federal grand jury indicted Cooley on gun and drug offenses in 2016, but he moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that the Crow Police Department lacked authority to investigate him as a non-Indian on a public right-of-way through the reservation.
The lower courts ruled in favor of Cooley, but the government took the case to the Supreme Court and overturned a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.