State Supreme Court upholds ruling on Flathead Reservation criminal jurisdiction

The Montana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a district court ruling against Lake County, which had argued the State of Montana should reimburse the local government for federal criminal oversight on the Flathead Reservation.

Writing for the majority, Supreme Court Justice Beth Baker concluded that it remains the Montana Legislature’s “discretion to determine whether and how much to fund the county’s P.L. 280 costs,” affirming the District Court Judge Amy Eddy’s 2023 ruling to dismiss the case.  

“It wasn’t a huge surprise to me. We knew it was going to be uphill going in, but we knew it was a step we needed to take in our process to get funding,” Lake County Commissioner Bill Barron told the Daily Montanan. 

This decision is the latest piece of a years-long fight between the county and the state over Public Law 280, which Congress enacted in 1953 to allow the transfer of federal criminal and civil jurisdictions over Native American reservations to six states.

Montana took over criminal jurisdiction in the Flathead Reservation in 1963 and is responsible for overseeing felony crimes there now, while the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, or CSKT, has overseen misdemeanor crimes since 1994. However, it is the county that carries out the actual enforcement. 

Lake County officials have said the financial burden of this system reached a “breaking point”, costing county taxpayers roughly $4 million a year, and in 2017 signed the first of several resolutions to withdraw from the PL-280 agreement. Since then there has been a barrage of discussions, legislative acts and legal actions regarding who should foot the bill. 

The CSKT are not party to the lawsuit, but the tribes have previously said they are “offering technical, legal, and personnel resources as the Tribes work with state and federal partners to determine a solid path forward.” Tribal Council Chairman Michael Dolson said in a statement earlier this year that the tribes are focused on public safety “regardless of the status of PL-280.”

The county has sought legislative funding solutions, saying that withdrawing from the agreement would force the state to spend around $100 million to recreate the criminal justice system on the reservation. 

The 2021 Legislature passed an annual appropriation of $1 towards Lake County for Public Law 280 services, which Eddy described as “patently absurd,” while in 2023 the legislature passed House Bill 479, which would have allocated $5 million over two years to Lake County. Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed that bill, though he praised the county’s enforcement effort as a “model of success”  in his veto letter. The measure failed to garner enough support to override the veto.

In 2022, Lake County filed the complaint against the State of Montana, alleging an “unfunded mandate” and “unjust enrichment.” The county sought damages for past and present costs, restitution, and a declaration that the state must reimburse all future costs related to PL-280. 

In November of last year, Judge Eddy ruled in favor of the state and dismissed the case, stating that “Lake County’s proper remedy was to withdraw its consent to P.L. 280.” 

“It is unfortunate that, during a legislative session noteworthy for its unprecedented budget surplus, the parties were unable to reach an agreement to provide for the ongoing safety and security of the Flathead Indian reservation and Lake County,” the district court order read. 

Lake County officials voted to leave the agreement following Eddy’s ruling, and requested Gianforte release the county from the agreement. However, the governor’s office in May said the county’s paperwork was invalid.

Lake County has continued to provide felony enforcement on the Flathead Reservation, though they have done so “under protest,” Commissioner Gale Decker told the Daily Montanan earlier this year. 

And, the county has been tallying up the bill ever since and sending monthly invoices to the state. 

During a county commission meeting on Nov. 19, Decker said the cost through October was $967,577.22, but the invoices had not yet prompted a response from the state. The total bill includes just hard costs, according to Decker, excepting additional costs such as vehicle depreciation, renovations to the detention center and others that would require “some deep digging to validate.”

“I understand where the governor is. I don’t agree with him, but I understand where he doesn’t want to put a line item into the budget year after year to provide funding to Lake County for Public Law 280,” Decker said. “But there is no way that, in my opinion, Lake County and CSKT can come up with a way of funding it.”

State Sen. Greg Hertz, R-Polson, told the commission that he has requested a draft bill for the 2025 legislative session seeking state funding, and that he’d had conversations with Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras in which she seemed receptive to the idea. 

Speaking on Wednesday, Commissioner Barron said the county commission would be meeting with its lawyers this week to go over options, which could include filing an additional lawsuit, or trying yet again for a legislative solution. 

“Do we go that route again and let it get vetoed again? Do we do a lawsuit and ask a judge to award it?” Barron said. “We’ve started this process and it hasn’t gone the way we’d hoped. We thought we’d been kind of misled and kind of stuck in the back of the process, but we’re in it, and I do think there is a solution down the road. And I’m ready to take it.” 

Micah Drew is a reporter for the Daily Montanan.