Oklahoma Tax Comm'n v. Sac and Fox Nation, 508 U.S. 114, 7 (1993)

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120

OKLAHOMA TAX COMM'N v. SAC AND FOX NATION

Opinion of the Court

all tribal members who register their vehicles with the Sac and Fox Nation (and hence do not pay state excise and registration taxes) to be delinquent with regard to the state taxes. Nevertheless, so long as a tribal member retains ownership of a vehicle, the State makes no effort to collect the allegedly delinquent taxes. If the tribal member sells the car to a nonmember, however, and the nonmember then "applies to the State for a title and license plate, the subsequent owner must bring up the title on the vehicle by paying the current and delinquent excise taxes on the transfers of the vehicle." App. 29. The subsequent owner also must pay registration fees for the current year and registration fees and penalties for one previous year. Ibid. In contrast, the Commission issues transfer titles to vehicles previously licensed in other States upon payment of current registration fees without more. Okla. Stat., Tit. 68, § 2105(b) (Supp. 1990).

The Sac and Fox Nation brought this action on behalf of itself and all residents of its territorial jurisdiction, App. 1, seeking a permanent injunction barring the Commission from taxing the income of people who earn their income within Sac and Fox territory and of people who reside within the Tribe's jurisdiction, id., at 8. The Tribe also sought relief from imposition of the State's vehicle excise tax and registration fees on vehicles "owned by residents of, and principally garaged within, the Sac and Fox jurisdiction" that lawfully were registered with the Sac and Fox Nation. Ibid. In large part, the Tribe based its arguments of immunity on our opinion in McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm'n, 411 U. S. 164 (1973), in which we held that a State could not subject a tribal member living on the reservation whose income derived from reservation sources to a state income tax absent express authorization from Congress. The Commission contended in response that neither McClanahan nor any other of our cases discussing Indian

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