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Rh Doubtless, too, the rise of the plenary-power theory injected incoherence into our Indian-law jurisprudence. Many scholars have commented on it. See, e.g., P. Frickey, Doctrine, Context, Institutional Relationships, and Commentary: The Malaise of Federal Indian Law Through the Lens of Lone Wolf, 38 Tulsa L. Rev. 5, 9 (2002) (describing our doctrine as “riddled with … inconsistency”); F. Pommersheim, A Path Near the Clearing: An Essay on Constitutional Adjudication in Tribal Courts, 27 Gonz. L. Rev. 393, 403 (1991) (calling our doctrine “bifurcated, if not fully schizophrenic”). So have Members of this Court. has put the problem well: “[M]uch of the confusion reflected in our precedent arises from two largely incompatible” assumptions: That Congress “can regulate virtually every aspect of the [T]ribes”; and that “Indian [T]ribes retain inherent sovereignty.” Lara, 541 U. S., at 214–215 (opinion concurring in judgment). Those two propositions of course clash. That is because only one is true. Yes, Tribes retain the inherent sovereignty the Constitution left for them. But no, Congress does not possess power to “calibrate ‘the metes and bounds of tribal sovereignty.’ ” Ibid.

In recent years, this Court has begun to correct its mistake. Increasingly, it has emphasized original meaning in constitutional interpretation. See, e.g., Kennedy v. Bremerton School Dist., 597 U. S. ___, ___–___ (2022) (slip op., at 23–24); Ramos v. Louisiana, 590 U. S. ___, ___, ___–___ (2020) (slip op., at 6, 11–17). In the process, it has come again to recognize the Indian Commerce Clause provides the federal government only so much “power to deal with the Indian Tribes.” Mancari, 417 U. S., at 551–552. But to date, these corrective steps have not yielded all they should. While this Court has stopped overreading its own plenary-power precedents, it has yet to recover fully the original meaning of the Indian Commerce Clause.

Today, the Court takes further steps in the right direction. It recognizes that Congress’s powers with respect to