The Seneca Nation of Indians has again received judicial
protection from the state’s attempt to collect taxes on Native-sold
cigarettes.
On Thursday morning, State Supreme Court Appellate Division
Associate Justice Jerome C. Gorski granted the Senecas a stay from
the state’s plan to collect a $4.35 per-pack excise tax at the
wholesale level.
The injunction will be in effect until June 20. During the next
10 days, the judge will hear and consider the tribe’s appeal
against the taxation.
The temporary stay only protects Seneca tobacco merchants and not
those from other tribes fighting the taxation.
Judge Gorski’s decision comes less than a day after New York
State Supreme Court Judge Donna M. Siwek lifted a temporary
restraining order she granted the Seneca Nation of Indians last
month from the tax enforcement. In her decision, Judge Siwek said
the state’s taxation plan is in compliance with tax-collection
mandates and do not infringe on the tribe’s sovereignty.
Commenting on Thursday’s decision, Seneca President Robert Odawi
Porter reiterated previous statements he made regarding the tribe’s
20-plus-years legal battle against state cigarette taxation.
“No one should underestimate the Nation’s resolve to defend and
protect its sovereign rights,” President Porter said. “Immunity
from taxes by federal treaty is the law of the land. Our people
survived state encroachment before and triumphed for centuries as
an independent and successful people.
“That will not change now.”