In 2011, Brian and Michelle Lewis were rear-ended by William Clarke on a highway in Connecticut. The Lewises sued Clarke in Connecticut court. This seems like an easy case. The Connecticut courts have subject-matter jurisdiction over accidents that happen in Connecticut, and have personal jurisdiction over Clarke, a Connecticut resident. Without more, the case is a straightforward state tort suit for damages.

But the Supreme Court doesn’t take cases like that, so there must be a complication. It turns out Clarke was on the job at the time, and he was working not for a private business but for another sovereign. This is not an insurmountable hurdle for Connecticut courts looking for subject-matter jurisdiction. Although sovereigns, such as states, can assert immunity from suits in federal court, they cannot do so in the courts of other states. In 1979, in Nevada v. Hall, an employee of the state of Nevada allegedly harmed the plaintiffs in an auto accident in California. The court held that California courts could hear the case, applying California law. If Clarke worked for Rhode Island, then, the case would still be easy. An employee of Rhode Island acting within his official capacity or otherwise is subject to the jurisdiction of Connecticut courts for accidents taking place in Connecticut.

So what makes this case worthy of the Supreme Court’s attention? Clarke worked not for Rhode Island, but for the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, an official arm of the Mohegan Tribe. Tribes, like states, have sovereign immunity, and the Connecticut Supreme Court held that this immunity applied to Clarke (who was acting in his official capacity, driving gamblers home from the Mohegan Sun casino, another official arm of the tribe). Although the court did not cite Nevada v. Hall, it presumably thought that the fact that the defendant was a tribe, not a state, distinguished the case. In other words, tribes have greater sovereign-immunity protection than states.

Under the Connecticut Supreme Court’s holding, the Lewises can sue in a gaming disputes court operated by the tribe, but cannot sue in Connecticut state court. The Lewises asked the Supreme Court to review that holding, which the justices agreed in September to do. The court will hear oral argument in Lewis v. Clarke on Monday.

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