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Haden Freisner
Dr. Gallegos
Legal Aspects of Business Ownership
February 26, 2017
Reaction Paper
The case of Dolgencorp Inc. vs Mississippi Band of Choctwa Indians is a very
complicated case that stirred up issues among the United States legal system and the tribal courts
on regards of sovereignty and jurisdiction. The case caused for a split in the Supreme Court with
a decision of 4-4 whether the case was to be in the jurisdiction of the tribal court or the county
court in which the incident took place. The case was due to an incident made by an employee of
Dollar General that was located on a reservation, in which the manger sexually molested a
thirteen year old while working in an internship at the store. The thirteen year old is a member of
the tribe, and since the store was located on the reservation, the tribe court had the jurisdiction of
the case in order to prosecute the manager and the corporation. The jurisdiction of the tribe court
is something that is tricky in the United States legal institution, but there is set guidelines that
determine whether a tribe court has jurisdiction on the case. This case falls into those guidelines,
and that is why, in my opinion, Dolgencorp Inc. is to pay the reparations to the plaintiff, John
Doe.
The guidelines described on what falls into the legal jurisdiction of the tribal court are
determined based off of commercial interaction with the reservation or any member of the tribe.
The Supreme Court ruled that since the individual filing the case, John Doe, completed work that
had value to the company, then the company symbolically made an agreement with the tribe of
the Choctowa. The agreement appeared to be consensual when the thirteen year old was hired for
an unpaid internship, in which would be a learning experience to help train the individual with
work experience (Dolgencorp, Inc. v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, 2016). The program
in which the individual was participating in was called the Youth Opportunity Program (YOP),
in which the company Dollar General offers youth individuals from the reservation opportunities
to learning new skills and experiences at the store location for no pay. The program was being
run for years prior to the incident, as well as the manager of the store was working at the store
for years prior to this case (Dolgencorp, Inc. v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, 2016). The
case arose in 2003, in which the manager, Townsend, sexually molested the thirteen year old that
was working in the program at the store.
The thirteen year old boy, John Doe, took the case to the tribal court, since the incident
