In the 1985 case California State Board of Equalization et al. v. Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a state could impose its cigarette tax on sales to nonmembers of an Indian tribe occurring on a reservation. The court held that such taxation did not infringe upon tribal self-government and was therefore permissible under federal law. This decision overturned previous rulings by lower courts which had sided with the Chemehuevi Tribe in their argument against California's imposition of taxes for cigarettes sold at their reservation store to non-tribal members, asserting it violated tribal sovereignty rights.

In the dissenting opinion for California State Board of Equalization et al. v. Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, Justice Brennan disagreed with the majority's interpretation of Public Law 280 and its application to this case. He argued that Congress did not intend to grant states general civil regulatory power over Indian reservations when it passed Public Law 280 in 1953, but rather sought only to confer jurisdiction over private legal disputes involving reservation Indians in state court. The law was intended as a means of providing access to justice for Native Americans who were otherwise excluded from state courts due to their tribal affiliation, not as a tool for imposing state regulations on tribes themselves. Therefore, he believed that California had no right under Public Law 280 or any other federal statute to impose its cigarette tax on sales by the tribe.