Title I of the Indian Civil Rights Act does not expressly or implicitly create a cause of action for declaratory and injunctive relief in the federal courts. Decided May 15, 1978 (argued November 29, 1977). Opinion of the Court: Thurgood Marshall → go there Dissenting: White. Topic: Native American law. Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, 436 U.S. 49 (1978), is a landmark case in the area of federal Indian law involving issues of great importance to the meaning of tribal sovereignty in the contemporary United States. The Supreme Court sustained a law passed by the governing body of the Santa Clara Pueblo that explicitly discriminated on the basis of sex. In so doing, the Court advanced a theory of tribal sovereignty that weighed the interests of tribes sufficient to justify a law that, had it been passed by a state legislature or Congress, would have almost certainly been struck down as a violation of equal protection. Wiki link