United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Satiacum v. Washington, 414 U.S. 1 (1973)

Satiacum v. Washington

No. 72-552

Decided October 15, 1973

414 U.S. 1

ON PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE

SUPREME COURT OF WASHINGTON

Syllabus

State courts should have determined where petitioner's alleged offenses occurred with respect to boundaries of present or former Indian reservation, since, if they occurred outside those boundaries, the State Supreme Court unnecessarily reached a federal question in deciding that the reservation as such had ceased to exist.

Certiorari granted; 80 Wash.2d 492, 495 P.2d 1035, vacated and remanded.

PER CURIAM

It appearing that petitioner might have been fishing at a location outside the boundaries of what is, or was, the Puyallup Indian Reservation when the acts with which he is charged were committed, and, if this were so, that the Supreme Court of Washington then unnecessarily addressed, and determined, the federal question whether the Puyallup Reservation "has ceased to exist," the petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, the judgment of the Supreme Court of Washington is vacated, and the case is remanded to that court for resolution by the state courts of the factual issue whether the alleged offenses took place outside the boundaries of what is, or was, the Reservation.