Tribal Immunity

In Native American Distributing v. Seneca-Cayuga Tobacco Company, No. 07-5104, the Tenth Circuit upheld a dismissal on tribal sovereign immunity grounds.  In so doing the court reaffirmed that tribal sovereign immunity may be waived only by an express and authorized waiver of immunity.  Quoting the Ninth Circuit, it stated that “Indian sovereignty, like that of other sovereigns, is not a discretionary principle subject to the vagaries of the commercial bargaining process or the equities of a given situation.”