Supreme Court: Tribal police may detain non-Native Americans on reservation highways

USA Today By John Fritze June 1, 2021

WASHINGTON – A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that tribal police may detain non-Native Americans on highways running through their reservations, overturning an appeals court that said such powers were out of bounds absent an "apparent" crime.

"To deny a tribal police officer authority to search and detain for a reasonable time any person he or she believes may commit or has committed a crime would make it difficult for tribes to protect themselves against ongoing threats," Associate Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court.

The case stems from an interaction that took place in 2016. James Saylor, a highway safety officer for the Crow Police Department, approached a vehicle stopped on U.S. Route 212 in the Crow Indian Reservation in southern Montana. As Saylor began to question the driver, Joshua Cooley, he grew suspicious of his answers. Saylor noticed two semiautomatic rifles on the passenger seat of Cooley's truck.

View the full article: USAToday.com