City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York

Historical tribal background The Oneida Indian Nation originally lived on about in central New York. In 1788, the State of New York and the tribe entered into a treaty where the tribe ceded all but to the state and kept the 300,000 as their reservation. Two years later, the United States Congress passed the Indian Trade and Intercourse Act, prohibiting the sale of tribal lands without the permission and ratification of the Federal government. Both the city of Sherrill and Madison County appealed the decision to the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The Circuit Court affirmed. The defendants appealed again and the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari. ==Opinion of the Court==

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion of the court, reversing and remanding. Without overturning the Second Circuit's finding that the lands qualified as Indian Territory, Justice Ginsburg held that the Oneida purchase of the land did not revive the tribal sovereignty over the land. Because there was a period of about 200 years during which the tribe had not sought to regain title, the Court opined that it was too long out of Oneida Nation control to reassert their tribal immunity over those lands as an automatic mechanism. In addition, since non-Indians now lived on the land, it would pose problems for those people. Justice Ginsburg concluded that the proper way for the Oneida Nation to reassert its immunity over those re-acquired lands was to place the land in US trust under the Department of Interior, as authorized by the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Justice Ginsburg reasoned that the mechanisms behind the IRA would address issues of checker-board jurisdictions and other pertinent issues. Concurring opinion Justice David Souter issued a concurring opinion stating that the amount of time involved barred the tribe from restoring sovereignty to the land in question. Dissent Justice John P. Stevens dissented, stating that the land within the boundaries of its historical reservation was "Indian Country," and the city had no jurisdiction to tax that property. ==Subsequent history==

Sherrill held only that the local governments could tax OIN-owned property that was part of the original reservation but reacquired on the open market, not that the local governments could collect. In 2010, the Second Circuit held that tribal sovereign immunity barred a tax foreclosure suit against the tribe for unpaid taxes. As urged by concurring judges José A. Cabranes and Peter W. Hall, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari. Following a tribal declaration and ordinance waiving sovereign immunity, the Court vacated and remanded. As of April 2026, Sherrill remains the most recent Supreme Court case in which the discovery doctrine was directly cited or enforced. ==See also==