Cite as: 533 U. S. 353 (2001)
Souter, J., concurring
Courts and the Future 43 (1978), which would be unusually difficult for an outsider to sort out.
Hence the practical importance of being able to anticipate tribal jurisdiction by reference to a fact more readily knowable than the title status of a particular plot of land. One further consideration confirms the point. It is generally accepted that there is no effective review mechanism in place to police tribal courts' decisions on matters of non-tribal law, since tribal-court judgments based on state or federal law can be neither removed nor appealed to state or federal courts. Cf., e. g., 28 U. S. C. § 1441(a) (removal of "any civil action brought in a State court of which the district courts of the United States have original jurisdiction"); § 1257(a) (Supreme Court review of "judgments or decrees rendered by the highest court of a State" where federal law implicated). The result, of course, is a risk of substantial disuniformity in the interpretation of state and federal law, a risk underscored by the fact that "[t]ribal courts are often 'subordinate to the political branches of tribal governments,' " Duro, supra, at 693 (quoting Cohen 334-335).
III
There is one loose end. The panel majority in the Ninth Circuit held that "the Montana presumption against tribal court jurisdiction does not apply in this case." 196 F. 3d 1020, 1028 (1999). Since we have held otherwise, should we now remand for application of the correct law? There is room for reasonable disagreement on this point, see post, at 396 (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment), but on balance I think a remand is unnecessary. The Court's analysis of opposing state and tribal interests answers the opinion of the Ninth Circuit majority; in substance, the issues subject to the Court of Appeals's principal concern have been considered here. My own focus on the Montana presumption was, of course, addressed by the panel (albeit unsympathetically), and the only question that
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