The State of Washington taxes “motor vehicle fuel importer[s]” whobring large quantities of fuel into the State by “ground transportation.” Wash. Rev. Code §§82.36.010(4), (12), (16). Respondent Cougar Den, Inc., a wholesale fuel importer owned by a member of theYakama Nation, imports fuel from Oregon over Washington’s publichighways to the Yakama Reservation to sell to Yakama-owned retailgas stations located within the reservation. In 2013, the WashingtonState Department of Licensing assessed Cougar Den $3.6 million intaxes, penalties, and licensing fees for importing motor vehicle fuelinto the State. Cougar Den appealed, arguing that the Washingtontax, as applied to its activities, is pre-empted by an 1855 treaty between the United States and the Yakama Nation that, among otherthings, reserves the Yakamas’ “right, in common with citizens of theUnited States, to travel upon all public highways,” 12 Stat. 953. AWashington Superior Court held that the tax was pre-empted, andthe Washington Supreme Court affirmed.
Held: The judgment is affirmed.
No surprise, really, except that it was 5 to 4.
It does create cause for concern, however, regarding the impending decision in a case involving Tribal hunting rights and off reservation, inter state, hunting by tribal members.
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