In the 1993 case Robert Hagen v. Utah, the U.S Supreme Court ruled on a matter concerning double jeopardy and state sovereignty. The petitioner, Robert Hagen, was charged with sexual abuse of a child in both federal and tribal courts for the same offense which occurred within an Indian reservation. He argued that this constituted double jeopardy under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution - being tried twice for the same crime. However, Utah contended that because it had transferred jurisdiction over crimes committed on reservations to federal authorities under Public Law 280 (PL-280), it retained concurrent jurisdiction along with tribes not affected by PL-280 transfers. The court held that prosecution in both tribal and federal courts did not violate Double Jeopardy Clause as they are separate sovereigns; therefore two prosecutions were permissible. Furthermore, while states could assume some criminal jurisdiction over reservations via PL-280 transfer from Congress if they chose to do so voluntarily or upon request from tribes themselves; such action does not automatically confer concurrent state/tribal authority unless explicitly stated by law.

In the dissenting opinion for Robert Hagen v. Utah, it was argued that the majority's decision to uphold Hagen's conviction despite a lack of clear evidence violated his constitutional rights. The dissent emphasized that there were significant inconsistencies in the testimonies against Hagen and pointed out that no physical evidence linked him to the crime scene. They also criticized how heavily weighted eyewitness testimony was in this case, given its inherent unreliability and potential for bias or error. Furthermore, they expressed concern over how quickly law enforcement targeted Hagen as a suspect without thoroughly investigating other leads or possibilities first. This rush to judgment could have potentially led to an innocent man being convicted while the real perpetrator went free - something they believed should be avoided at all costs within our justice system.