Native Americans | Law

Some Nuances of Tribal Sovereign Immunity

When Native American tribes are prevented from being sued

Sovereign immunity comes from an old English law idea called “rex non potest peccare”, which is Latin for “the king can do no wrong”. This idea was based on the belief that the king could not be judged by the courts he set up. In the United States, this concept changed to mean that the government cannot be sued unless it agrees to be sued.

For Native American tribes, their sovereign immunity was first mentioned by the U.S. Supreme Court as an aside in the 1919 case Turner v. United States. Over time, the tribes’ sovereign immunity became recognized as established law. This means state governments cannot sue the tribes because of their immunity, and similarly, tribes cannot sue the states. However, tribes do not have immunity from lawsuits by the federal government.

What is the Tribal Sovereign Immunity?

To understand the limits of tribal sovereign immunity, consider some example. Imagine a tribe owns a bakery, and one of their employees is a baker named Sam. Sam’s employment contract states that the tribe will cover any legal costs if he gets sued while performing his job. One day, while making a delivery for the bakery, Sam is involved in a traffic accident. The person in the other vehicle decides to sue Sam personally. Would tribal sovereign immunity protect Sam in this situation?