Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones
Supreme Court of the United States
Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones, Commissioner, Bureau of Revenue of New Mexico, et al.
Certiorari to the Court of Appeals of New Mexico
No. 71-738. Argued: December 12, 1972 --- Decided: March 27, 1973
The State of New Mexico may impose a nondiscriminatory gross receipts tax on a ski resort operated by petitioner Tribe on off-reservation land that the Tribe leased from the Federal Government under § 5 of the Indian Reorganization Act, 25 U.S.C. § 465. Though § 465 exempts the land acquired from state and local taxation, neither that provision nor the federal-instrumentality doctrine bars taxing income from the land. But § 465 bars a use tax that the State seeks to impose on personalty that the Tribe purchased out of State and which, having been installed as a permanent improvement at the resort, became so intimately connected with the land itself as to be encompassed by the statutory exemption. Pp. 147-159.
83 N.M. 158, 489 P.2d 666, affirmed in part and reversed in part.
WHITE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which BURGER, C.J., and MARSHALL, BLACKMUN, POWELL, and REHNQUIST, JJ., joined. DOUGLAS, J., filed an opinion dissenting in part, in which BRENNAN and STEWART, JJ., joined, post, p. 159.
George E. Fettinger argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the briefs was F. Randolph Burroughs.
John C. Cook, Assistant Attorney General of New Mexico, argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief was David L. Norvell, Attorney General.[1]
- ↑ Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed by Solicitor General Griswold, Assistant Attorney General Frizzell, Harry R. Sachse, Carl Strass, and Eva R. Datz for the United States: by Arthur Lazarus, Jr., Philip P. Ashby, Royal D. Marks, and George P. Vlassis for the Association on American Indian Affairs, Inc., et al.; by David H. Getches for the Native American Rights Fund; by Samuel W. Murphy, Jr., and William C. Pelster for Montana Inter-Tribal Policy Board; and by Raymond C. Simpson for Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians.
- William D. Dexter, Assistant Attorney General of Washington, and Eugene F. Corrigan filed a brief for Multistate Tax Commission as amicus curiae urging affirmance.