Cite as: 523 U. S. 696 (1998)
Opinion of Souter, J.
Tribe's coal. See Crow Tribe v. Montana, 650 F. 2d 1104, 1113 (1981). Because the Tribe's claim may properly be viewed in this light, we can put to one side any questions whether the Court is right, or I am, about the significance of the error by the Department of the Interior or the point-for-point applicability of Valley County. We may bypass the principles specific to claims between contending taxing authorities entirely and simply ask whether something in this record would in practical terms defeat the Tribe's claim to disgorgement of its own property taken in the form of excess taxes. The Court's answer to this question is uncertain. The Court endorses the view that some degree of disgorgement would have been "exorbitant," ante, at 716, and "compensatory damages" unjustified, ante, at 718, and it suggests that the District Court's previous award to the Tribe of all taxes paid into the registry after 1982 amounted to a windfall big enough to provide at least rough restitution for the excessive share of taxes collected in the preceding six years. Ante, at 716, 719. At the same time, the Court says it imposes no bar to the possibility of further remedial action in the trial court. Perhaps the Court sees the windfall only when it regards the Tribe as one of two rival taxing authorities, as distinct from the Tribe as a property owner that has suffered as such. I trust that this distinction is open for exploration and development upon remand. Whether the Tribe is equitably entitled to a penny more than it has now, I do not know, but I think it is clear that nothing in this record disentitles the Tribe at least to press for disgorgement of some or all of Montana's pre-1983 excess tax revenues.
725
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