With a three-justice plurality opinion, a two-justice concurrence in the judgment and two dissents, Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den appears unusually fractured at first glance.
The oral argument on Tuesday in Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den Inc. showed yet again that federal Indian law cases often diverge from familiar progressive-conservative divides.
Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den Inc. pits an 1855 treaty against a 2006 state statute designed to avoid tribal tax immunity. Cougar Den, owned by Yakama tribal citizen Kip Ramsey, imports gasoline from Oregon over 27 miles of Washington state highway into the Yakama reservation for sale at Yakama gas stations.