Ramah Navajo School Board, Inc. v. Bureau of Revenue of New Mexico

Ramah Navajo School Board, Inc. v. Bureau of Revenue of New Mexico, 458 U.S. 832 (1982), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the state was not authorized to impose taxes on a construction company building a school on a Native American (Indian) reservation.

Ramah Navajo School Board, Inc. v. Bureau of Revenue of New Mexico
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 28, 1982 Decided July 2, 1982
Full case name	Ramah Navajo School Board, Inc., et al. v. Bureau of Revenue of New Mexico
Citations	458 U.S. 832 (more) 102 S. Ct. 3394; 73 L. Ed. 2d 1174; 1982 U.S. LEXIS 50; 50 U.S.L.W. 5101
Case history
Prior	Ramah Navajo School Board., Inc., et al. v. Bureau of Revenue of New Mexico, 625 P.2d 1225 (New Mex. App. 1980)
Subsequent	720 P.2d 1243 (New Mex. App. 1986)
Holding
New Mexico was not authorized to impose taxes on a construction company building a school on a Native American reservation.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Marshall, joined by Burger, Brennan, Blackmun, Powell, O'Connor
Dissent	Rehnquist, joined by White, Stevens
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Art. I § 8

The board operates Pine Hill Schools.

Background

The children of Ramah Navajo Chapter of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico attended a public high school that was near the Navajo Reservation until the state closed the school in 1968. No other public schools were nearby, and children either did not attend high school or had to go to a federal Indian boarding school, none of which were close to the reservation. The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department assessed taxes on the construction company who built the school.

See also

• Mescalero Apache Tribe v. Jones (1973)
• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 458

External links

• Text of Ramah Navajo School Board, Inc. v. Bureau of Revenue of New Mexico, 458 U.S. 832 (1982) is available from: CourtListener Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)