Page:United States Reports 546.pdf/338

 546US1

Unit: $U11

[08-22-08 15:19:53] PAGES PGT: OPIN

Cite as: 546 U. S. 95 (2005)

127

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

is indeed novel. It is the ﬁrst case in which a Tribe demon­ strated below that the imposition of a state tax would pre­ vent the Tribe from imposing its own tax. Cf. Cotton Petro­ leum, 490 U. S., at 185 (state and tribal taxes were not mutually exclusive because “the Tribe could, in fact, increase its taxes without adversely affecting on-reservation oil and gas development”). The Court of Appeals considered instructive this Court’s decision in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U. S. 202 (1987). See 379 F. 3d, at 985. The Court there held that tribal and federal interests outweighed state inter­ ests in regulating tribe-operated facilities for bingo and other games. Cabazon, 480 U. S., at 219–220. Distinguish­ ing Colville, the Court pointed out that the Tribes in Caba­ zon “[were] not merely importing a product onto the reserva­ tio[n] for immediate resale to non-Indians”; they had “built modern facilities” and provided “ancillary services” so that customers would come in increasing numbers and “spend ex­ tended periods of time” playing their “well-run games.” 480 U. S., at 219; see also New Mexico v. Mescalero Apache Tribe, 462 U. S. 324, 327, 341 (1983) (Mescalero II) (State barred from regulating hunting and ﬁshing on-reservation where the Tribe had constructed a “resort complex” and de­ veloped wildlife and land resources). As in Cabazon, so here, the Nation Station is not “merely importing a product onto the reservatio[n] for immediate re­ sale to non-Indians” at a stand-alone retail outlet. 480 U. S., at 219. Fuel sales at the Nation Station are “an integral and essential part of the [Tribe’s] on-reservation gaming en­ terprise.” 379 F. 3d, at 984. The Nation built the Nation Station as a convenience for its casino patrons and, but for the casino, there would be no market for fuel in this other­ wise remote area. Id., at 982. The Court of Appeals further emphasized that the Nation’s “interests here are strengthened because of its need to raise fuel revenues to construct and maintain reservation