Hardin

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Agua Caliente Tribal Corporation (collectively “the Tribe”) seek a declaratory judgment that federal law precludes imposition of the State of California’s sales and use tax on purchases of food and beverages by non-tribal members at a tribal resort on reservation land. The district court determined that the Eleventh Amendment barred the Tribe’s claims and dismissed the action for lack of jurisdiction. Citing the Supreme Court’s recent treatment of the Ex Parte Young doctrine in Idaho v. Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 U.S. 261 , 117 S.Ct. 2028 , 138 L.Ed.2d 438 (1997), the court reasoned that state taxation involved a “core area of state sovereignty,” and found that the Young exception to sovereign immunity did not apply. The court also found that the Young exception was inapplicable because the Tribe had an adequate remedy at law: it could pay the disputed tax and then sue in state court for a refund. We conclude that the Tribe’s claims fall within the Ex Parte Young exception to the Eleventh Amendment bar, that Coeur d’Alene does not alter the scope of the Young exception in this case, and that the district court therefore…