Skip to main content
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Home
Omaha Daily Record
  • Login
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • Calendar
    • Real Estate
    • Small Business
    • Non-Profit
    • Political
    • Legal
  • Podcasts
    • Real Estate
    • Small Business
    • Non-Profit
    • Political
    • Legal
  • Profiles
    • Real Estate
    • Small Business
    • Non-Profit
    • Political
    • Legal
  • E-Edition
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
  • Real Estate News
    • Market Trends
  • Business News
  • Non-Profit News
  • Political News
  • Legal News
  • Editorial
    • Empower You
    • The Serial Entrepreneur
    • Tom Becka
  • Other News
  • Public Records
    • Wreck Permits
    • Building Permits
    • Electrical Permits
    • Mechanical Permits
    • Plumbing Permits
  • Real Estate Leads
    • Notice of Default
    • Active Property Sales
    • Active Probates
    • Deeds
  • Public Notices
    • State of Nebraska
    • City of Bennington
    • City of Gretna
    • City of Valley
    • Douglas County West Community Schools
    • Gretna Public Schools
    • Omaha Airport Authority
    • Omaha Housing Authority
    • Plattsmouth Community Schools
    • City of Omaha
    • Douglas County
      • Tax Delinqueny 2025
    • City/County Notice of Bids
    • City of Ralston
    • Omaha Public Schools
    • Millard Public Schools
    • Ralston Public Schools
    • Westside Community Schools
    • Bennington Public Schools
    • Learning Community
    • MAPA
    • MECA
    • Omaha Airport Authority
    • Village of Boys Town
    • Village of Waterloo
    • Sarpy County
      • Tax Delinquency 2025
    • City of Bellevue
  • Advertise
    • Place a Legal Notice
    • Place a Print Ad
    • Place a Classified Ad
    • Place an Online Ad
    • Place Sponsored Content
  • Available For Hire
    • Real Estate
      • Contractors
      • Clerical
    • Legal
      • Paralegal
      • Clerical
  • About
    • Our History
    • Our Office
    • Our Staff
    • Contact Us

You are here

Home » Court Leans Toward Tribal Police in Traffic Stop and Search

Court Leans Toward Tribal Police in Traffic Stop and Search

Published by Scott Stewart on Mon, 03/29/2021 - 12:00am
By 
Mark Sherman
The Associated Press

The Supreme Court seemed likely last week to allow tribal police officers to stop and search non-Indians on tribal lands over concerns that drunk drivers or even violent criminals might otherwise elude authorities.

The justices heard arguments last Tuesday in the Justice Department’s appeal of a lower court ruling that threw out evidence of drug-related crimes from the search of a non-Native motorist’s pickup truck by a tribal officer on a public road that crosses the Crow reservation in Montana.

The case involves a traffic stop in 2016 in which Officer James Saylor of the Crow Tribe Police Department came upon a pickup truck with its headlights on and motor running, parked on the shoulder of U.S. Route 212.

The driver, Joshua Cooley, had watery, bloodshot eyes, Saylor said. Cooley also had two semiautomatic rifles and a handgun in the pickup, as well as methamphetamine.

Saylor called for help from federal and county officers, who eventually arrested Cooley.

Tribal police have limited authority over non-Indians in criminal matters, and the question for the high court is whether non-Indians can be detained only if evidence of a crime is “apparent” or “obvious,” as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held.

But several justices suggested that the 9th Circuit went too far in limiting tribal police.

“What if it is a situation where he has reasonable suspicion that this person is a murderer?” Justice Samuel Alito asked Cooley’s lawyer, Eric Henkel.

The officer must let the driver go in such a situation, Henkel said. “No, I don’t think he has enough because reasonable suspicion is such a low threshold,” Henkel said.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that even as the court has limited tribes’ ability to deal with non-Indians, it has recognized that tribes retain some inherent authority.

“What could threaten that more than the idea that you can’t do anything about somebody within the reservation that you have good reason to believe is violating criminal law?” Roberts asked.

Indian tribes can’t use their own courts to hold non-Indians accountable for crimes committed on reservations.

But Justice Department lawyer Eric Feigin said a tribal officer should be able to detain and hand over someone to federal or state authorities. “If the state or the federal government says, no, we don’t want this person, the tribe has to let him go,” Feigin said.

Siding with the federal government and Indian tribes, former federal prosecutors appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents told the court in a written filing that Indian country criminal jurisdiction is “a confounding morass for tribal, federal, and state authorities.”

A decision is expected by late June.

User login

  • Request new password

            

Latest Podcasts

  • Real Estate
  • Political
  • Political
  • Real Estate

Nebraska Landlord

Betches Sup - A Liberal News Commentary

Ruthless - A Conservative News Commentary

REIA Radio Show

Omaha Daily Record

The Daily Record
222 South 72nd Street, Suite 302
Omaha, Nebraska
68114
United States

Tele (402) 345-1303
Fax (402) 345-2351
 

The Daily Record
222 South 72nd Street, Suite 302 | Omaha, Nebraska 68114 | United States | Tele (402) 345-1303 | Fax (402) 345-2351 | Sitemap
Site Design, Programming & Development by Surf New Media