US
Cigarette manufacturer King Mountain Tobacco has requested the US Supreme Court review a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision ordering the company to pay about US$58 million in unpaid federal excise taxes.
Located on Yakama tribal land in White Swan, WA, King Mountain is owned and operated by the Wheeler family – Yakama citizens.
According to the Wheelers, the Yakama Treaty of 1855 shields their tribal-licensed business from state and federal taxes. Under the treaty, Yakamas have the right to freely travel all roads and highways. That clause has been interpreted in other cases as including a right to freely bring goods to market.
The Wheelers say that the Ninth Circuit erroneously overlooked that interpretation when it made its decision last August. In their brief seeking the review, the Wheelers argue that the Ninth Circuit ruling focused on the manufacturing of their products, but that the taxes involve the shipment of products.
The Yakama Nation, as a sovereign government, and its members are exempt from state sales, tobacco and gas taxes on the 1.3-million-acre reservation.
A year earlier, a US District Court judge ruled against King Mountain when it protested assessments on cigarette manufacturers imposed by a 2004 Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act, which created a free market for tobacco farmers and eliminated federal price supports and quota programs.