Opinion No. (2005)

BILL LOCKYER Attorney General DANIEL G. STONE Deputy Attorney General THE HONORABLE ALLAN McCLAIN, SHERIFF, COUNTY OF KINGS, has requested an opinion on the following question: Are California motor vehicle registration and driver's license requirements subject to enforcement against Indian tribal members on roads within their Indian reservation? CONCLUSION California motor vehicle registration and driver's license requirements are not subject to enforcement against Indian tribal members on roads within their Indian reservation. ANALYSIS We are asked whether California motor vehicle registration and driver's license requirements are subject to enforcement against Indian tribal members on roads within their Indian reservation. We conclude that they are not. In 80 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 46 , 48-49 (1997), we observed that the answer to whether a given California law is applicable to a tribal member's conduct occurring on an Indian reservation would depend primarily upon the approval of Congress. The United States Supreme Court explained this principle in the landmark case of California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (1987) 480 U.S. 202 , 207-208 : "The Court has consistently…