Court leans toward tribal police in traffic stop and search

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed likely Tuesday to allow tribal police officers to stop and search non-Indians on tribal lands over concerns that drunk drivers or even violent criminals might otherwise elude authorities.

The justices heard arguments in the Justice Department's appeal of a lower court ruling that threw out evidence of drug-related crimes from the search of a non-Native motorist's pickup truck by a tribal officer on a public road that crosses the Crow reservation in Montana.

The case involves a traffic stop in 2016 in which Officer James Saylor of the Crow Tribe Police Department came upon a pickup truck with its headlights on and motor running, parked on the shoulder of U.S. Route 212.

https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/court-leans-toward-tribal-police-in-traffic-stop-and-search