Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc.

by Supreme Court of the United States

Note: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued. The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader. See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING v. COUGAR DEN, INC.
CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF WASHINGTON
No. 16–1498. Argued October 30, 2018–Decided March 19, 2019

The State of Washington taxes “motor vehicle fuel importer[s]” who bring large quantities of fuel into the State by “ground transportation.” Wash. Rev. Code §§82.36.010(4), (12), (16). Respondent Cougar Den, Inc., a wholesale fuel importer owned by a member of the Yakama Nation, imports fuel from Oregon over Washington’s public highways to the Yakama Reservation to sell to Yakama-owned retail gas stations located within the reservation. In 2013, the Washington State Department of Licensing assessed Cougar Den $3.6 million in taxes, penalties, and licensing fees for importing motor vehicle fuel into the State. Cougar Den appealed, arguing that the Washington tax, as applied to its activities, is pre-empted by an 1855 treaty between the United States and the Yakama Nation that, among other things, reserves the Yakamas’ “right, in common with citizens of the United States, to travel upon all public highways,” 12 Stat. 953. A Washington Superior Court held that the tax was pre-empted, and the Washington Supreme Court affirmed.

Held: The judgment is affirmed.

188 Wash. 2d 55, 392 P. 3d 1014, affirmed.

Justice Breyer, joined by Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan, concluded that the 1855 treaty between the United States and the Yakama Nation pre-empts the State of Washington’s fuel tax as applied to Cougar Den’s importation of fuel by public highway. Pp. 4–18.

(a) The Washington statute at issue here taxes the importation of fuel by public highway. The Washington Supreme Court construed the statute that way in the decision below. That court wrote that the statute “taxes the importation of fuel, which is the transportation of fuel.” 188 Wash. 2d 55, 69, 392 P. 3d 1014, 1020. It added that “travel on public highways is directly at issue because the tax [is] an importation tax.” Id., at 67, 392 P. 3d, at 1019. The incidence of a tax is a question of state law, Oklahoma Tax Comm’n v. Chickasaw Nation, 515 U. S. 450, 461, and this Court is bound by the Washington Supreme Court’s interpretation of Washington law, Johnson v. United States, 559 U. S. 133, 138. Nor is there any reason to doubt that the Washington Supreme Court meant what it said when it interpreted the statute. In the statute’s own words, Washington “impose[s] upon motor vehicle fuel licensees,” including “licensed importer[s],” a tax for “each gallon of motor vehicle fuel” that “enters into this state,” but only “if . . . entry is” by means of “a railcar, trailer, truck, or other equipment suitable for ground transportation.” Wash. Rev. Code §§82.36.010(4), 82.36.020(1), (2), 82.36.026(3). Thus, Cougar Den owed the tax because Cougar Den traveled with fuel by public highway. See App. 10a–26a; App. to Pet. for Cert. 55a. Pp. 4–10.

(b) The State of Washington’s application of the tax to Cougar Den’s importation of fuel is pre-empted by the Yakama Nation’s reservation of “the right, in common with citizens of the United States, to travel upon all public highways.” This conclusion rests upon three considerations taken together. First, this Court has considered this treaty four times previously; each time it has considered language very similar to the language now before the Court; and each time it has stressed that the language of the treaty should be understood as bearing the meaning that the Yakamas understood it to have in 1855. See United States v. Winans, 198 U. S. 371, 380–381; Seufert Brothers Co. v. United States, 249 U. S. 194, 196–198; Tulee v. Washington, 315 U. S. 681, 683–685; Washington v. Washington State Commercial Passenger Fishing Vessel Assn., 443 U. S. 658, 677–678. Thus, although the words “in common with” on their face could be read to permit application to the Yakamas of general legislation (like the legislation at issue here) that applies to all citizens, this Court has refused to read “in common with” in this way because that is not what the Yakamas understood the words to mean in 1855. See Winans, 198 U. S., at 379, 381; Seufert Brothers, 249 U. S., at 198–199; Tulee, 315 U. S., at 684; Fishing Vessel, 443 U. S., at 679, 684–685. Second, the historical record adopted by the agency and the courts below indicates that the treaty negotiations and the United States’ representatives’ statements to the Yakamas would have led the Yakamas to understand that the treaty’s protection of the right to travel on the public highways included the right to travel with goods for purposes of trade. Third, to impose a tax upon traveling with certain goods burdens that travel. And the right to travel on the public highways without such burdens is just what the treaty protects. Therefore, precedent tells the Court that the tax must be pre-empted. In Tulee, for example, the fishing right reserved by the Yakamas in the treaty was held to pre-empt the application to the Yakamas of a state law requiring fishermen to buy fishing licenses. 315 U. S., at 684. The Court concluded that “such exaction of fees as a prerequisite to the enjoyment of” a right reserved in the treaty “cannot be reconciled with a fair construction of the treaty.” Id., at 685. If the cost of a fishing license interferes with the right to fish, so must a tax imposed on travel with goods (here fuel) interfere with the right to travel. Pp. 10–18.

Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justice Ginsburg, concluded that the 1855 treaty guarantees tribal members the right to move their goods, including fuel, to and from market freely. When dealing with a tribal treaty, a court must “give effect to the terms as the Indians themselves would have understood them.” Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians, 526 U. S. 172, 196. The Yakamas’ understanding of the terms of the 1855 treaty can be found in a set of unchallenged factual findings in Yakama Indian Nation v. Flores, 955 F. Supp. 1229, which are binding here and sufficient to resolve this case. They provide “no evidence [suggesting] that the term ‘in common with’ placed Indians in the same category as non-Indians with respect to any tax or fee the latter must bear with respect to public roads.” Id., at 1247. Instead, they suggest that the Yakamas understood the treaty’s right-to-travel provision to provide them “with the right to travel on all public highways without being subject to any licensing and permitting fees related to the exercise of that right while engaged in the transportation of tribal goods.” Id., at 1262. A wealth of historical evidence confirms this understanding. “Far-reaching travel was an intrinsic ingredient in virtually every aspect of Yakama culture,” and travel for purposes of trade was so important to their “way of life that they could not have performed and functioned as a distinct culture” without it. Id., at 1238. Everyone then understood that the treaty would protect the Yakamas’ preexisting right to take goods to and from market freely throughout its traditional trading area. The State reads the treaty only as a promise to tribal members of the right to venture out of their reservation and use the public highways like everyone else. But the record shows that the consideration the Yakamas supplied–millions of acres desperately wanted by the United States to settle the Washington Territory–was worth far more than an abject promise they would not be made prisoners on their reservation. This Court’s cases interpreting the treaty’s neighboring and parallel right-to-fish provision further confirm this understanding. See, e. g., United States v. Winans, 198 U. S. 371. Pp. 1–11.

Breyer, J., announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which Sotomayor and Kagan, JJ., joined. Gorsuch, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Ginsburg, J., joined. Roberts, C. J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh, JJ., joined. Kavanaugh, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Thomas, J., joined.