BRENDALE v. CONFEDERATED TRIBES AND BANDS OF THE YAKIMA INDIAN NATION Et Al.

Justice Blackmun,

with whom Justice Brennan and Justice Marshall join, concurring in the judgment in No. 87-1622 and dissenting in Nos. 87-1697 and 87-1711.

The Court’s combined judgment in these consolidated cases — splitting tribal zoning authority over non-Indian fee lands between the so-called “open” and “closed” areas of the Yakima Indian Reservation — is Solomonic in appearance only. This compromise result arises from two distinct approaches to tribal sovereignty, each of which is inconsistent with this Court’s past decisions and undermines the Federal Government’s longstanding commitment…