The Cayuga Indian Nation today won another court victory in its bid to continue selling tax-free cigarettes at its LakeSide Trading stores in Union Springs and Seneca Falls. The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a request by Cayuga and Seneca counties to overturn a recent ruling in which the state Court of Appeals sided with the Cayugas, lawyers for...
View full sizeCayuga County sheriff's deputies raided the Cayuga Indian Nation's LakeSide Trading store outside Union Springs on Nov. 25, 2008, seizing untaxed cigarettes.The Cayuga Indian Nation today won another court victory in its bid to continue selling tax-free cigarettes at its LakeSide Trading stores in Union Springs and Seneca Falls.
The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected a request by Cayuga and Seneca counties to overturn a recent ruling in which the state Court of Appeals sided with the Cayugas, lawyers for both sides said.
The decision settles once and for all the question of whether the nation’s stores are on a qualified reservation, said Lee Alcott, a Syracuse lawyer who represents the Cayugas.
“The (Supreme Court) decision essentially affirms not only the Court of Appeals ruling … but also that the nation has a reservation and that the taxpayers of Cayuga and Seneca counties will no longer have to bear the costs of another futile attempt to prove otherwise,’’ Alcott added.
Last May, the state Court of Appeals ruled the counties could not prosecute the Cayugas for selling tax-free cigarettes to non-Indians at its stores because the stores are on qualified reservation land under state tax law.
In its ruling, the appeals court also sided with the Cayugas because there was no state system in place to collect the tax.
Rochester lawyer Philip Spellane, who represents the counties, declined comment on the today’s Supreme Court decision because he had yet to talk to the counties.
The Cayugas say they don’t have to collect the cigarette tax because their stores are on sovereign reservation land, which lies in their ancestral homeland around the north end of Cayuga Lake.
The state is trying to implement a tax-collection system but several Indian nations, including the Cayugas, have taken legal action to enjoin the state from forcing Indian businesses to collect the tax.
For years the counties have tried to block the Cayugas from selling tax-free cigarettes to non-Indians at their stores. The counties say that gives the nation an unfair competitive edge over non-Indian businesses that have to collect the tax and charge steeper prices.
You can reach Scott Rapp at srapp@syracuse.com or 289-4839.