WASHINGTON (AP) — One of Tennessee’s largest companies has lost a precedent setting Supreme Court case that defines the limits of Native American tribal court authority.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday that justices were deadlocked 4-4 in a closely watched dispute between the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and mid-state based Dollar General Corp. The impasse leaves a lower court decision in place that favors the tribe.
Dollar General was sued in tribal court in 2005 over allegations that a store manager made sexual advances toward a 13-year-old boy placed in his store by a tribal youth employment program. Dollar General asked federal courts to block the lawsuit, but the lower courts sided with the tribe.
The case threatened to limit the ability of tribal courts to resolve cases in which a member makes claims about a company doing business on tribal land.