C & L Enterprises, Inc. v. Citizen Band Potawatomi Tribe of Okla., 532 U.S. 411, 4 (2001)

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414

C & L ENTERPRISES, INC. v. CITIZEN BAND POTAWATOMI TRIBE OF OKLA.

Opinion of the Court

the brief were Solicitor General Waxman, Assistant Attorney General Schiffer, and Deputy Solicitor General Kneedler.

Justice Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the Court.

In Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., 523 U. S. 751 (1998), this Court held that an Indian tribe is not subject to suit in a state court—even for breach of contract involving off-reservation commercial conduct—unless "Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its immunity." Id., at 754. This case concerns the impact of an arbitration agreement on a tribe's plea of suit immunity. The document on which the case centers is a standard form construction contract signed by the parties to govern the installation of a foam roof on a building, the First Oklahoma Bank, in Shawnee, Oklahoma. The building and land are owned by an Indian Tribe, the Citizen Potawatomi Nation (Tribe). The building is commercial, and the land is off-reservation, nontrust property. The form contract, which was proposed by the Tribe and accepted by the contractor, C & L Enterprises, Inc. (C & L), contains an arbitration clause.

The question presented is whether the Tribe waived its immunity from suit in state court when it expressly agreed to arbitrate disputes with C & L relating to the contract, to the governance of Oklahoma law, and to the enforcement of arbitral awards "in any court having jurisdiction thereof." We hold that, by the clear import of the arbitration clause, the Tribe is amenable to a state-court suit to enforce an arbitral award in favor of contractor C & L.

I

Respondent Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a federally recognized Indian Tribe. In 1993, it entered into a contract with petitioner C & L for the installation of a roof on a Shawnee, Oklahoma, building owned by the Tribe. The building,

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