Hoopa Valley Tribal Council v. Jones

The Hoopa Valley Tribal Council (council) (plaintiff) enacted an ordinance stating that a person could be excluded from the Hoopa Valley Reservation (reservation) for specified reasons. Those reasons included (1) repeated commission of a crime or breach of the peace under tribal, state, or federal law and (2) unauthorized entry onto tribal or individual land. The council later clarified that trafficking drugs within the reservation’s exterior boundaries constituted unauthorized entry. In 2012, the council petitioned the Hoopa Valley Tribal Court for an order excluding Arthur Jones (defendant) from the reservation for both repeated commission of a crime and unauthorized entry. Jones had recently pled guilty in federal court to the transportation of controlled substances and the possession of controlled substances for sale, with both offenses having been committed within the reservation’s boundaries. He also had a previous conviction for felony possession of a controlled substance. After the tribal court granted the council’s petition to exclude Jones, Jones appealed to the Hoopa Valley Tribal Court of Appeals, arguing that (1) the tribal court lacked authority to impose an exclusion order, which was effectively a criminal penalty, and (2) the exclusion ordinance was unenforceable because it was unconstitutionally vague.