State v. Onihan, 15947

• Decision Date: 03 August 1988
• Docket Number: No. 15947,15947
• Parties: STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Dennis W. ONIHAN, Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 365

427 N.W.2d 365

STATE of South Dakota, Plaintiff and Appellee, v. Dennis W. ONIHAN, Defendant and Appellant.

No. 15947.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Argued April 26, 1988.

Decided Aug. 3, 1988.

John P. Guhin, Deputy Atty. Gen., Pierre, for plaintiff and appellee; Roger A. Tellinghuisen, Atty. Gen., Pierre, on brief.

Michael T. Swallow of Dakota Plains Legal Services, Mission, for defendant and appellant.

SABERS, Justice.

Facts

On August 31, 1986, Dennis Onihan (Onihan) was arrested by a South Dakota Highway Patrol officer on a charge of driving while under the influence. The offense took place on a public highway in Day County; the highway is a right-of-way running through Indian trust land and is in Indian country. Onihan is an enrolled member of the Sisseton Wapheton Sioux Tribe. The arresting officer was not cross-deputized as either a BIA or Tribal Police Officer.

Onihan was charged in Day County Circuit Court. He moved to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the state court had neither personal nor subject matter jurisdiction. The trial court denied Onihan's motion to dismiss and held that the State had jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians "on any highway" running through Indian country in South Dakota pursuant to SDCL 1-1-21. The case was tried to the court and Onihan was found guilty. Onihan appeals.

History

This jurisdiction issue requires a review of the federal and state statutory and caselaw which form the foundation for interpretation of current law.

In 1953, the United States Congress enacted Public Law 280. ¹ This federal jurisdictional statute provided for both mandatory and optional transfer of civil and criminal jurisdiction over Indian country ² from the federal government to the states. Public Law 280 gave mandatory jurisdiction (with a few geographic exclusions) to Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, and Wisconsin. These states were granted immediate jurisdiction over civil and criminal causes of action arising on most Indian reservations and Indian trust lands within their state borders. However, at the time Public Law 280 was drafted, it was not clear that other states were either willing or able to accept an immediate transfer of jurisdiction. Some states, designated disclaimer states, had constitutions or statutes containing organic law disclaimers ³ of jurisdiction over Indian country. Because it was not within the power of the federal legislature to remove these disclaimers and several Indian tribes objected to the states assuming jurisdiction, Section 6 of Public Law 280 was drafted and enacted:

Sec. 6. Notwithstanding the provisions of any Enabling Act for the admission of a State, the consent of the United States is hereby given to the people of any State to amend, where necessary, their State constitution or existing statutes, as the case may be, to remove any legal impediment to the assumption of civil and criminal jurisdiction in accordance with the provisions of this Act: Provided, That the provisions of this Act shall not become effective with respect to such assumption of jurisdiction by any such State until the people thereof have appropriately amended their State constitution or statutes as the case may be.

Section 6 of Public Law 280 "was placed in the Act to eliminate possible organic law barriers to the assumption of jurisdiction by disclaimer States." Washington v. Yakima Indian Nation, 439 U.S. 463, 495, 99 S.Ct. 740, 759, 58 L.Ed.2d 740, 764 (1979). It is a procedural provision applicable to disclaimer states.

Section 7 of Public Law 280 states:

The consent of the United States is hereby given to any other State not having jurisdiction with respect to criminal offenses or civil causes of action, or with respect to both, as provided for in this Act, to assume jurisdiction at such time and in such manner as the people of the State shall, by affirmative legislative action, obligate and bind the State to assumption thereof.

Section 7 has been construed to be a substantive provision applicable to all option states. Yakima, 439 U.S. at 495-497, 99 S.Ct. at 764-766.

In 1957, the South Dakota Legislature enacted SDCL 1-1-12 through 1-1-16 in response to Public Law 280 and the removal of the federal bar to assumption of jurisdiction by the State. These statutes conditioned the acceptance and assumption of jurisdiction over Indian country on: 1) the consent of the tribes, SDCL 1-1-13; ⁴ 2) the consent of affected counties, SDCL 1-1-14; and 3) the existence of contracts between affected counties and the federal government for reimbursement of costs associated with the assumption of jurisdiction, SDCL 1-1-14. These conditions have never been met and it appears clear from subsequent caselaw and legislative action that, although these statutes remain on the books, they have no effect.

SDCL 1-1-17, ⁵ enacted in 1959, was this state's acceptance and assumption of concurrent police jurisdiction over all public highways, including rights-of-way, in Indian country in South Dakota. The jurisdiction assumed is limited to criminal jurisdiction over crimes other than the ten major crimes ⁶ found in 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1153, unless automobile accidents are involved. The terms of SDCL 1-1-17 raise some questions as to its ultimate effect. Which federal "cession" of jurisdiction this statute relates to is not apparent from reading the session law and codified statute. The statute provides for "concurrent police jurisdiction." A lack of any substantive legislative history makes it difficult to discern if the jurisdiction assumed was concurrent with the federal government only or also with tribal government. ⁷ Additionally, it is unclear why the term "police" jurisdiction was used, rather than criminal jurisdiction. Research has uncovered no equivalent use of this term. One possible explanation is that the term was used to limit the scope of the jurisdiction accepted; geographically and as to subject matter. Subsection (2) of SDCL 1-1-17 further limits the scope of jurisdiction to highways jointly established or maintained by the state and federal government.

In 1961, SDCL 1-1-18 ⁸ through 1-1-21 were enacted. SDCL 1-1-18 obligates and binds the state to assumption of civil and criminal jurisdiction in Indian country within South Dakota. SDCL 1-1-19 provides that assumption of this jurisdiction may be conditioned upon federal reimbursement for the additional costs of assumption of jurisdiction. SDCL 1-1-21 provides a second condition--that the governor must issue a proclamation declaring jurisdiction accepted and assumed. More importantly for this case, SDCL 1-1-21 also provides in part:

Except as to criminal offenses and civil causes of action arising on any highways, as the term is defined in chapter 31-1, ⁹ the jurisdiction provided for in Sec. 1-1-18 shall not be assumed or deemed accepted by this state, and Secs. 1-1-18 and 1-1-20 shall not be considered in effect, unless and until ... [the conditions are met]. (emphasis added).

Finally, SDCL 1-1-20 is designed to repeal SDCL 1-1-12 through 1-1-17, subject to the provisions of SDCL 1-1-21.

In 1964, this court addressed the effect of SDCL 1-1-18 through 1-1-21 in Petition of Hankins, 80 S.D. 435, 125 N.W.2d 839 (1964). The facts in Hankins are similar to the facts in this appeal, in that the Indian defendant claimed the State lacked jurisdiction to try her for the offense of drunk driving, allegedly committed on a highway within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. We stated that it was clear that Section 6 of Public Law 280 was intended to apply to South Dakota, thus the statutes which the State claimed as the jurisdictional basis had to conform to the requirements of that section. We then held that the attempt to assume partial jurisdiction, i.e., jurisdiction over highways in Indian country, was invalid as not being within the intent or purpose of Congress in enacting Public Law 280.

In 1963, the South Dakota Legislature amended the statutes at issue to provide for the unconditional assumption of jurisdiction in Indian country. However, a referendum petition was filed to place this issue on the ballot in the following election and the voters soundly rejected the unconditional assumption of jurisdiction. ¹⁰

In 1968, Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, 25 U.S.C. Sec. 1301 et seq. Section 1322 of the Act amended Public Law 280 by requiring tribal consent to state assumption of jurisdiction. This consent requirement is applicable to any state assumption of jurisdiction after 1968; this requirement is not, however, to be retroactively applied to assumptions of jurisdiction which occurred prior to 1968. State ex. rel. May v. Seneca-Cayuga Tribe, 711 P.2d 77, 88 (Okla.1985); Airvator, Inc. v. Turtle Mountain Mfg. Co., 329 N.W.2d 596, 599 (N.D.1983); Sheppard v. Sheppard, 104 Idaho 1, 14, 655 P.2d 895, 908 (1982). Therefore, this requirement of tribal consent does not apply to either SDCL 1-1-17 or 1-1-21.

In 1979, the United States Supreme Court in Yakima upheld Washington's assumption of partial jurisdiction over Indian country within the state. ¹¹ It seems clear that to the extent that Hankins held that state assumption of partial jurisdiction was invalid under Public Law 280, it is now overruled by Yakima. Thus, the state may exercise partial jurisdiction if the statutes so provide. However, jurisdiction cannot be assumed unless this court finds that the state legislature has taken the requisite "positive action" under Secs. 6 and 7 of Public Law 280. ¹² In Yakima, the United States Supreme Court stated that the determination of the effectiveness of state legislative action to remove or repeal the disclaimer is a question of state law to be decided by the Supreme Courts of the affected states. 439 U.S. at 493, 99 S.Ct. at 761.

Question Presented

The question before this court is the effect of SDCL 1-1-12 through 1-1-21 on the disclaimer of jurisdiction in our state constitutio...