InfoBytes Blog
California Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Tribe-Affiliated Payday Lending Case
On May 21, the California Supreme Court granted the state’s appeal of an appellate court decision that short-term, small-dollar credit businesses owned by certain federally recognized Indian tribes are sufficiently related to their respective tribes to be protected under the doctrine of tribal immunity from state regulation. California v. Miami Nation Enterprises, S216878 (Cal. May 21, 2014). Earlier this year, the California Court of Appeals, Second District, affirmed dismissal of a civil action filed by the Commissioner of the California Department of Corporations seeking to enforce a cease and desist order against five tribe-affiliated online lenders, holding that a business functions as an arm of the tribe if it: (i) has been formed by tribal resolution and according to tribal law, for the purpose of tribal economic development and with the clearly expressed intent by the sovereign tribe to convey its immunity to that entity; and (ii) has a governing structure both appointed by and ultimately overseen by the tribe.