YAKIMA — A federal appeals panel has upheld the state in its long-running battle to force Yakama tribal smoke shops to collect the $3.03 state cigarette tax from non-Indian buyers.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld U.S. District Judge Robert H. Whaley, who ruled last year that tribal smoke shops on the 1.2 million-acre Yakama reservation must collect the tax.

The ruling doesn’t affect King Mountain cigarette sales on the reservation because they are manufactured on tribal land by a tribal member.