William Lewis Smith v. Wayne S. Barry, et al.

Decided January 14, 1992. Sandra Day O'Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 90-7477 · 502 U.S. 244 (1992) · Cited 954 times

Holding

The Indian General Allotment Act of 1887 permits Yakima County to impose an ad valorem tax on reservation land patented in fee pursuant to the Act and owned by reservation Indians or the Yakima Indian Nation itself, but does not allow the county to enforce its excise tax on sales of such land.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co. · 487 U.S. 312 (1988)
• Foman v. Davis · 371 U.S. 178 (1962)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Parrish v. United States · 605 U.S. 376 (2025)
• Becker v. Montgomery · 532 U.S. 757 (2001)
• Scarborough v. Principi · 541 U.S. 401 (2004)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1992). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).