Cite as: 533 U. S. 353 (2001)
Stevens, J., concurring in judgment
erned in the first instance by state laws" (emphasis added)).2 Given a tribal assertion of general subject-matter jurisdiction, we should recognize a tribe's authority to adjudicate claims arising under § 1983 unless federal law dictates otherwise. Cf. id., at 477-478 ("[S]tate courts may assume subject-matter jurisdiction over a federal cause of action absent provision by Congress to the contrary or disabling incompatibility between the federal claim and state-court adjudication").3
I see no compelling reason of federal law to deny tribal courts the authority, if they have jurisdiction over the par-2 This principle is not based upon any mystical attribute of sovereignty, as the majority suggests, see ante, at 366-367, but rather upon the simple, commonsense notion that it is the body creating a court that determines what sorts of claims that court will hear. The questions whether that court has the power to compel anyone to listen to it and whether its assertion of subject-matter jurisdiction conflicts with some higher law are separate issues.
3 The majority claims that "Strate is [the] 'federal law to the contrary' " that explains its restriction of tribal court subject-matter jurisdiction over § 1983 suits. Ante, at 367, n. 8. But Strate merely concerned the circumstances under which tribal courts can exert jurisdiction over claims against nonmembers. See 520 U. S., at 447-448. It most certainly does not address the question whether, assuming such jurisdiction to exist, tribal courts can entertain § 1983 suits. Yet the majority's holding that tribal courts lack subject-matter jurisdiction over § 1983 suits would, presumably, bar those courts from hearing such claims even if jurisdiction over nonmembers would be proper under Strate. Accordingly, whatever else Strate may do, it does not supply the proposition of federal law upon which the majority purports to rely.
Of course, if the majority, as it suggests, is merely holding that § 1983 does not enlarge tribal jurisdiction beyond what is permitted by Strate, its decision today is far more limited than it might first appear from the Court's sometimes sweeping language. Compare ante, at 369 ("[T]ribal courts cannot entertain § 1983 suits"), with ante, at 366, n. 7 ("We conclude (as we must) that § 1983 is not . . . an enlargement [of tribal-court jurisdiction]"). After all, if the Court's holding is that § 1983 merely fails to "enlarg[e]" tribal-court jurisdiction, then nothing would prevent tribal courts from deciding § 1983 claims in cases in which they properly exercise jurisdiction under Strate.
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