
Oklahoma tribal sovereignty case gets Supreme Court review, not reversal
Monday, January 31, 2022
Gaylord News
The Supreme Court will revisit – but not overturn – its landmark 2020 decision that said a large part of eastern Oklahoma is still legally Muscogee (Creek) reservation land, a ruling that state officials claim has upended trial courts there.
The state filed more than 30 appeals this term asking the court to reverse its ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which found that Muscogee Nation Reservation boundaries still included more than 3 million acres in northeastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa. That ruling meant many crimes committed on Muscogee land had to be tried in federal or tribal, but not state, courts.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected 31 of those cases, but it did agree last Friday to hear one appeal, Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta. The only question justices will consider in that case, however, is whether the state “has authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Indians in Indian country.”
They will not take up the other question in Castro-Huerta that all the rejected appeals asked: Whether McGirt should be overruled.

Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
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