[2][3][4][5][6] In 2003, a 13-year-old tribal member, identified as John Doe in court documents, was working at the store as part of a joint tribal-Dollar General internship program.

[2]: 169 [4] The tribe took action to legally exclude the manager from tribal lands, but the United States Attorney did not criminally prosecute him.

[3]: 648 [4][7] The tribal court refused to dismiss the lawsuit,[8] and the Choctaw Supreme Court affirmed, noting the case of Montana v. United States[9] allowed tribes to exercise civil, as opposed to criminal, jurisdiction[fn 3] over non-Indians on tribal land when the non-Indians had entered into a voluntary relationship with the tribe.

The manager was dropped from the case by the district court but Dollar General was held to have been in a consensual relationship and subject to the tribe's jurisdiction.

[7] The case was heard by a three-judge panel consisting of Judges Jerry Edwin Smith, Catharina Haynes, and James E. Graves Jr.[2]: 169  Judge Graves delivered the opinion of the Court, finding that the facts in the case met the first exception noted in Montana, allowing the tribal court to exercise jurisdiction of Dollar General.