Dispute Over State’s Ability To Tax Tribal Business Heads To High Court

(June 23, 2017, 11:01 AM EDT) -- OLYMPIA, Wash. — A decision by the Washington Supreme Court exempting a tribal business from paying state taxes on gasoline it hauls to a reservation based on a “right to travel” provision in an 1855 treaty warrants review by the U.S. Supreme Court because it cannot be reconciled with the high court’s precedents and a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling regarding the same treaty, Washington’s licensing agency argues in a June 14 petition for writ of certiorari (Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc., No. 16-1498, U.S. Sup., 2017 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs LEXIS 2112)....