## Facts

- The Yakama Nation Treaty of 1855 reserved to Yakama members “the right, in common with citizens of the United States, to travel upon all public highways.”
- Cougar Den, Inc., owned by a Yakama tribal member, purchased fuel in Oregon and transported it by public highway into Washington for sale to Yakama-owned gas stations on the Yakama Reservation.
- Washington imposed a motor fuel tax, penalties, and licensing fees on entities that import motor vehicle fuel into the state “by means of ground transportation.”
- In 2013, Washington assessed Cougar Den about $3.6 million in back taxes, penalties, and fees for prior fuel importations.
- Cougar Den contended the assessment was barred because it imposed a charge on treaty-protected highway travel with goods for trade.

## Issues

1. Whether the Yakama Treaty’s “right to travel upon all public highways” preempts Washington’s fuel-importation tax as applied to a Yakama-owned importer transporting fuel by highway to the reservation.
2. Whether the tax’s legal incidence is sufficiently connected to highway transportation such that it functions as a charge on treaty-protected travel rather than a generally applicable tax on fuel.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court affirmed the state court judgment setting aside the assessment as applied to Cougar Den.
- A plurality concluded the tax operated as a tax on transporting fuel by highway and therefore burdened the treaty-protected right to travel with goods for trade.
- A concurrence in the judgment agreed the tax was barred, emphasizing the Yakama understanding of the treaty promise and prior decisions treating comparable charges as impermissible toll-like burdens on treaty travel.
- Dissenting Justices would have upheld the tax as a neutral, generally applicable levy on fuel importation or possession, not a charge for using highways.

## Legal Principles

- Indian treaties are interpreted as the tribe would have understood them at the time of signing; ambiguities are resolved in the tribe’s favor.
- A state law is preempted as applied when it imposes a charge that conditions, targets, or materially burdens the exercise of a treaty-protected right.
- Under the Yakama Treaty, the right to travel on public highways includes travel with goods for trade, and bars state-imposed charges that function as tolls or equivalent burdens on that travel.
- A generally applicable tax may still be preempted if its triggering condition and practical operation tie liability to treaty-protected highway transportation.

## Conclusion

The Court held that Washington could not apply its fuel-importation tax, penalties, and licensing requirements to a Yakama-owned company whose liability was triggered by transporting fuel by public highway to the Yakama Reservation, because the Yakama Treaty’s right-to-travel guarantee preempted that charge as applied.


Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den, Inc., 139 S. Ct. 1000 (2019)