United States Tenth Circuit

Defendant's state tax on fuel supplied to defendant-Indian tribe by a non-Indian distributor is invalidated where defendant's legitimate interest of raising revenue interferes with and is incompatible with strong tribal and federal interests against taxation.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/12/2004
• Published 08/12/2004

Judges

• McKAY, Circuit Judge., Before LUCERO, McKAY, and HARTZ, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• David Prager, III, Tribal Attorney, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Mayetta, KS, for Plaintiff-Appellant., Vernle C. Durocher, Jr., Mary J. Streitz, and Christopher R. Duggan of Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Minneapolis, MN;  Thomas E. Wright of Wright, Henson, Somers, Sebelius, Clark & Baker, LLP, Topeka, KS;  and Mark Hubble, Tribal Attorney, Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Winnebago, NE, for Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska and HCI Distribution;  Ilse L. Smith, P.C., Kansas City, MO, for Kickapoo Tribe of Indians of the Kickapoo Reservation in Kansas;  Mark S. Gunnison of Payne & Jones, Chartered, Overland Park, KS, for Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska;  and Thomas Weathers of Alexander, Berkey, Williams & Weathers LLP, Berkeley, CA, for the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska, submitted a brief for amici curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• John Michael Hale, Special Assistant Attorney General, Kansas Department of Revenue, Topeka, KS, for Defendant-Appellee.