McGirt v. Oklahoma

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McGirt v. Oklahoma
Seal of the United States Supreme Court.svg
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued May 11, 2020
Decided July 9, 2020
Full case nameJimcy McGirt, Petitioner, v. Oklahoma
Docket no. 18-9526
Citations591 U.S. ___ ( more )
140 S. Ct. 2452
207 L. Ed. 2d 985
Argument Oral argument
Case history
PriorDenial for relief, PC-2018-1057 (Okla. Crim. App. Feb. 25) (2019); Cert. granted, 140 S. Ct. 659 (2019)
Holding
For Major Crimes Act purposes, land reserved for the Creek Nation since the 19th century remains "Indian country".
Court membership
Chief Justice
John Roberts
Associate Justices
Clarence Thomas  · Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer  · Samuel Alito
Sonia Sotomayor  · Elena Kagan
Neil Gorsuch  · Brett Kavanaugh
Case opinions
MajorityGorsuch, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan
DissentRoberts, joined by Alito, Kavanaugh; Thomas (except footnote 9)
DissentThomas
Laws applied
Oklahoma Enabling Act
Major Crimes Act

McGirt v. Oklahoma, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a landmark [1] [2] United States Supreme Court case which held that the domain reserved for the Muscogee Nation by Congress in the 19th century has never been disestablished and constitutes Indian country for the purposes of the Major Crimes Act, meaning that the State of Oklahoma has no right to prosecute American Indians for crimes allegedly committed therein. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals applied the McGirt rationale to rule nine other Indigenous nations had not been disestablished. As a result, almost the entirety of the eastern half of what is now the State of Oklahoma remains Indian country, meaning that criminal prosecutions of Native Americans for offenses therein falls outside the jurisdiction of Oklahoma’s court system. In these cases, jurisdiction properly vests within the Indigenous judicial systems and the federal district courts under the Major Crimes Act.

Contents

In the immediate wake of McGirt, Oklahoma courts began reviewing past criminal cases involving Native Americans, vacating past convictions, and transferring the matters to the federal courts for criminal prosecution. However, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals effectively ended this practice by issuing a controversial ruling that McGirt was not retroactive less than a year after the Supreme Court’s decision. [3] [4] Consistent with McGirt, this initially included crimes perpetrated against American Indian victims by non-Indian defendants. However, in 2022, the Supreme Court decided the case of Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta and held that state courts have concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts over crimes allegedly committed within Indian country against victims who are American Indians by those defendants who are not.

McGirt was related to Sharp v. Murphy , 591 U.S. ___ (2020), heard in the 2018–19 term on the same question but which was believed to be deadlocked due to Justice Neil Gorsuch's recusal; Gorsuch recused because he had prior judicial oversight of the case. Sharp was decided per curiam alongside McGirt.

Background

The reservations of the Five Civilized Tribes in dispute in this case Boundaries of the Five Tribes in 1866.svg
The reservations of the Five Civilized Tribes in dispute in this case

Prior to its statehood in 1907, about half of the land in Oklahoma, including the Tulsa metro area today, had belonged to the Five Civilized Tribes: the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek (now Muscogee), and Seminole tribal nations, whose nickname arose from their adoption of Anglo-American culture. [5] [6] [7] There had been several decades of warfare and conflict during the 19th century between the Native Americans and the United States over the lands on which the Natives lived, arising from White Americans' efforts to change the Natives from what they viewed as "savage" to their view of "civilized". [8] Eventually, these conflicts led to the Trail of Tears, an over 1,000 mile march from the Eastern US to Oklahoma that the US Government required the Native Americans to endure, resulting in the establishment of reservations. [9] The General Allotment Act started the process of allotting land in Indian reservations. At first the Five Civilized Tribes were exempt from allotment, but the Curtis Act later allowed forced allotment. In 1906, the US Congress passed the Five Tribes Act which contemplated the "dissolution of the tribal governments", but also provided "the tribal existence and present tribal governments of [the Five Tribes] are hereby continued in full force and effect". [10] By 1906, the US Congress passed the Oklahoma Enabling Act, which specifically required Oklahoma to disclaim "all right and title" to Indian property and lands and barred the Oklahoma Constitution from being construed to "limit or impair the right ... of property pertaining to the Indians". [10] [11] The former reservation lands, those of the Five Civilized Tribes as well as the other tribes in the state, were allocated by tribe into areas that gave suzerainty governing rights to the tribe to handle internal matters for Native Americans within the boundaries, but otherwise the state retained jurisdiction for non-Native Americans and for all other purposes such as law enforcement and prosecution.

In Sharp v. Murphy , Patrick Murphy, a citizen of the Muscogee-Creek Nation, admitted to committing murder in the state of Oklahoma, and was subsequently tried by the state courts around 2015. During these trials, Murphy argued that the language of the Oklahoma Enabling Act did not specify that the Native American reservations were disestablished, and because he had committed the murder within the Muscogee reservation territory, that his crime was subject to federal jurisdiction and not state under the Major Crimes Act. This argument was rejected by the state and on its first appeal within the federal courts, but at the Tenth Circuit in 2017, the court found in favor of Murphy's argument that the Enabling Act did fail to disestablish the territories, and thus Murphy should have been prosecuted by the federal courts. Judge Neil Gorsuch was a member of the Tenth Circuit panel at the time. The state petitioned to the Supreme Court in 2018, which agreed to hear the case. By then, Gorsuch had been elevated to the Supreme Court, and he recused himself from all hearings on the case. Because only eight out of nine Justices heard the case, it remained unresolved at the end of the 2018–2019 term; the Court had stated plans to hold another hearing on the case in the 2019–20 term but had not set a date. Many court analysts believed the case to be deadlocked due to Gorsuch's recusal. [12] [13]

Statements of the case

Jimcy McGirt was an enrolled member of the Seminole tribe. In 1991, having recently been discharged from prison, he moved in with and married a white woman in Broken Arrow who was not a member of the tribe. [14] McGirt was accused of sexual abuse against his wife's granddaughter by his wife's adult daughter, though there was no physical evidence. [15] McGirt was arrested on November 4, 1996, after turning himself in on an outstanding warrant. [14] Bail was set at $25,000, and McGirt was released from jail in January 1997 after posting bail. He was returned to jail in May 1997 after violating bail conditions, and a new bail was set at $50,000. [14] In June 1997, McGirt was found guilty, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus two consecutive 500-year sentences. [14] [15]

After Sharp was granted certiorari by the Supreme Court, McGirt sought postconviction relief on the basis of the 10th Circuit's ruling in Sharp. Both the county and state-level courts refused to grant hearings to McGirt's case, claiming he had failed to show how the state courts lacked jurisdiction in his previous court cases. McGirt subsequently petitioned to the Supreme Court to review. [15]

Supreme Court

McGirt was one of a dozen cases in which the Supreme Court opted to use teleconferencing for oral arguments for the first time in the court's history due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [16] The arguments for McGirt were heard on May 11, 2020. Ian Gershengorn, former Solicitor General of the United States, argued the case, after offering his services to the plaintiff. [17] Observers to the court stated that some justices raised concerns of how ruling in favor of McGirt, in recognizing that the reservations were never disestablished, would impact not only existing convicted prisoners within the state but how the federal courts would subsequently need to handle approximately 8,000 felonies that occur annually on those lands, as well as the impact on legal matters related to businesses and other civil actions that would fall under tribal regulations rather than the state's. Attention was given to the stance of Justice Gorsuch, who appeared to doubt Oklahoma's argument that the lands were effectively disestablished. Justice Sonia Sotomayor stated that should the Court find in favor of McGirt, ruling that the reservations were never formally disestablished, Congress would be able to easily remedy the situation with legislation to affirm the disestablishment. [18] [19]

Majority

The Court issued its decision on McGirt as well as a per curiam decision on Sharp following the basis of McGirt on July 9, 2020. The 5–4 majority opinion was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, and determined that for purposes of the Major Crimes Act, Congress had failed to disestablish the Indian reservations and thus those lands should be treated as "Indian country". Gorsuch wrote, "Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word." [20]

Dissent

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a dissent which was joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as in part by Clarence Thomas. Roberts wrote of the majority decision, "The state's ability to prosecute serious crimes will be hobbled and decades of past convictions could well be thrown out. On top of that, the court has profoundly destabilized the governance of eastern Oklahoma." [20]

Impact

The decision by the Supreme Court was seen as a significant win for Native American rights. Gorsuch's opinion was seen to acknowledge that many of the promises that Congress had made to the Native Americans in turning over reservations have gone unfulfilled, and rejected the argument presented by the state and federal government that he summarized as: "Yes, promises were made, but the price of keeping them has become too great, so now we should just cast a blind eye." [21]

The Supreme Court's decision directly impacts Native American tribal citizens who are currently convicted under state law for crimes committed on the former reservation lands, as well as for any future descendants who may be arrested for similar crimes covered by the Major Crimes Acts, as their prosecution would become a matter of the federal courts and not the state. At the time, about 1,900 of the prisoners in the Oklahoma system met these conditions, but only around 10% qualified for rehearings to transfer to the federal system as they were still within the statute of limitations. [22] [23]

The majority decision left open other potential impacts between territorial rights that may arise, which the Court put to the state and the tribes to resolve amicably should conflicts occur. Roberts had cautioned in his dissent that this could stretch to include taxation, adoption, and environment regulation rights. [22] Lawyers for the tribal groups asserted that the decision was narrow in affecting only Native American descendants within the lands as no land ownership changed hands. [1] The state and the five tribes issued a joint statement after the decision, stating "The nations and the state are committed to implementing a framework of shared jurisdiction that will preserve sovereign interests and rights to self-government while affirming jurisdictional understandings, procedures, laws, and regulations that support public safety, our economy, and private property rights. We will continue our work, confident that we can accomplish more together than any of us could alone." [24]

Aftermath

Native territorial changes

Since the case of McGirt v. Oklahoma, there have been multiple cases to recognize the other native tribes rather than just stopping at the recognition of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

"Five Civilized Tribes" now recognized

The Five Tribes received official recognition as reservations again:

Other tribes recognized

Criminal convictions

The Court's judgment reversed McGirt's denial for relief by the Oklahoma criminal court, which withdrew the state convictions and set McGirt to remain in prison until a federal jury trial held in November 2020. [33] McGirt was found guilty on three counts of aggravated sexual abuse and sexual contact in November 2020, [34] [35] and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in August 2021. [36] McGirt appealed to the Tenth Circuit, which, in June 2023, reversed the ruling based on improper procedures used to introduce testimony from the original trial and ordered a new trial that had been scheduled for March 2024. [37] McGirt pled guilty prior to the new trial in December 2023, [38] and his sentence was reduced to 30 years with time served credited, allowing for his release in May 2024. [39]

In the months following the McGirt decision, several convictions of tribal members who were tried under Oklahoma state law had been undone and new trials held under federal law. Further complicating matters was the March 2021 decision of the Oklahoma Supreme Court in the case of Shaun Bosse, a non-tribal state resident who had been convicted of the murder of a Chickasaw family on tribal lands in 2012. [40] The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that under McGirt, Bosse must be tried under federal law as well since the victims were Native American. [41] In April 2021, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, himself a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, stated that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision had created a threat to public safety because thousands of convicted criminals may have their convictions overturned due to the Bosse ruling. [42] The Cherokee Nation said it was "hard at work to ensure public safety" after the court "acknowledged the state illegally exerted prosecutorial authority involving Natives on our lands for decades" in McGirt and announced they had refiled over 500 cases dismissed in state courts. [43] Following the Bosse ruling, Attorney General Michael J. Hunter filed an emergency request with the U.S. Supreme Court beseeching the judges to intervene and reconsider their McGirt decision. [41] The Supreme Court granted the state's request on May 26, 2021, allowing the state to retain custody of Bosse pending a review of the state's petition. [44] [45] Bosse's case was reheard by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in September 2021. The court ruled that the McGirt decision was not retroactive and denied release to the tribal/federal judiciary. As a result, the state withdrew its petition. [46] Other incarcerated Native Americans continued to challenge this ruling, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear these challenges, maintaining the Oklahoma Court's position that McGirt was not retroactive. [47]

Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta

In an attempt to overturn the McGirt ruling, either partially or in its entirety, the state filed a new petition to the Supreme Court in the Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta case. The 2017 case involved Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta, a non-Native American convicted of neglecting a Native American child while living in Tulsa County. Castro-Huerta challenged his sentence, citing McGirt. In April 2021, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the sentencing due to jurisdiction issues raised in McGirt. [46] The Castro-Huerta case was one of several cases the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals had applied the McGirt ruling to. The court relied on the precedent set by the McGirt case when deciding any case involving a Native American. The state believed this was excessive. The state's new Attorney General John M. O'Connor stated reversing part of McGirt, would be in the state's best interest and allow the state to protect Native American citizens and prosecute non-Natives who committed crimes against them. [46] State law enforcement, several cities within the affected areas, and the states of Texas, Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska joined Oklahoma's petition specifically to have the part of the ruling affecting jurisdiction over crimes committed by non-Native Americans on Native land. The state, cities and law enforcement groups alleged that there was an increase in crimes committed against Native Americans by non-Native Americans following the McGirt decision. They went on to claim the McGirt ruling left them unable to enforce or prosecute these crimes, and existing tribal and federal law enforcement was spread too thin to handle the workload. [48]

The Supreme Court granted certiorari of Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta in January 2022, but specifically stated they would only look at the scope of the decision in McGirt and will not review the McGirt decision itself. [49]

On June 29, 2022, the Court held in Castro-Huerta that Federal and State governments have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Native Americans against Natives on tribal land. [50]

Law enforcement

The FBI's jurisdiction expanded in Oklahoma by almost 45% of the state's land. [51]

The ruling allowed the unsolved 1977 Oklahoma Girl Scout murders to be reviewed further by the Cherokee Nation Marshals. [52]

In August 2023, the Supreme Court declined to hear a decision from the Tenth Circuit which was ruled in favor of a tribal member who was ticketed for speeding by the Tulsa police within the portion of Tulsa that was within Muscogee territory, who then had challenged the ticket on the basis of McGirt. The ruling from the Tenth Circuit asserted that because of McGirt, the city could not enforce municipal regulations against tribal members on the parts of the city in tribal lands. Kavanaugh wrote an opinion on the case, joined by Alito, suggesting that there may be further need to review the bounds of McGirt with municipal laws. [53]

See also

Related Research Articles

Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832), was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional. The opinion is most famous for its dicta, which laid out the relationship between tribes, state, and federal governments. It is considered to have built the foundations of the doctrine of tribal sovereignty in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribal sovereignty in the United States</span> Type of political status of Native Americans

Tribal sovereignty in the United States is the concept of the inherent authority of Indigenous tribes to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian country</span> Self-governing Native American community in the United States

Indian country is any of the many self-governing Native American/American Indian communities throughout the United States. As a legal category, it includes "all land within the limits of any Indian reservation", "all dependent Indian communities within the borders of the United States", and "all Indian allotments, the Indian titles to which have not been extinguished."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian reservation</span> Land managed by Native American nations under the US Bureau of Indian Affairs

An American Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a U.S. federal government-recognized Native American tribal nation, whose government is autonomous, subject to regulations passed by the United States Congress and administered by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, and not to the U.S. state government in which it is located. Some of the country's 574 federally recognized tribes govern more than one of the 326 Indian reservations in the United States, while some share reservations, and others have no reservation at all. Historical piecemeal land allocations under the Dawes Act facilitated sales to non–Native Americans, resulting in some reservations becoming severely fragmented, with pieces of tribal and privately held land being treated as separate enclaves. This intersection of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Gaming Regulatory Act</span> US federal law

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act is a 1988 United States federal law that establishes the jurisdictional framework that governs Indian gaming. There was no federal gaming structure before this act. The stated purposes of the act include providing a legislative basis for the operation/regulation of Indian gaming, protecting gaming as a means of generating revenue for the tribes, encouraging economic development of these tribes, and protecting the enterprises from negative influences. The law established the National Indian Gaming Commission and gave it a regulatory mandate. The law also delegated new authority to the U.S. Department of the Interior and created new federal offenses, giving the U.S. Department of Justice authority to prosecute them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee Nation</span> Native American tribe in Oklahoma, United States

The Cherokee Nation, formerly known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated, due to increasing pressure, from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen and Natchez Nation. As of 2024, over 466,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Major Crimes Act</span>

The Major Crimes Act is a law passed by the United States Congress in 1885 as the final section of the Indian Appropriations Act of that year. The law places certain crimes under federal jurisdiction if they are committed by a Native American in Native territory. The law follows the 1817 General Crimes Act, which extended federal jurisdiction to crimes committed in Native territory but did not cover crimes committed by Native Americans against Native Americans. The Major Crimes Act therefore broadened federal jurisdiction in Native territory by extending it to some crimes committed by Native Americans against Native Americans. The Major Crimes Act was passed by Congress in response to the Supreme Court of the United States's ruling in Ex parte Crow Dog that overturned the federal court conviction of Brule Lakota sub-chief Crow Dog for the murder of principal chief Spotted Tail on the Rosebud Indian Reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muscogee Nation</span> Federally recognized Native American tribe in Oklahoma

The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands. They commonly refer to themselves as Este Mvskokvlke. Historically, they were often referred to by European Americans as one of the Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian country jurisdiction</span>

Indian country jurisdiction, or the extent which tribal powers apply to legal situations in the United States, has undergone many drastic shifts since the beginning of European settlement in America. Over time, federal statutes and Supreme Court rulings have designated more or less power to tribal governments, depending on federal policy toward Indians. Numerous Supreme Court decisions have created important precedents in Indian country jurisdiction, such as Worcester v. Georgia, Oliphant v. Suquamish Tribe, Montana v. United States, and McGirt v. Oklahoma.

Solem v. Bartlett, 465 U.S. 463 (1984), was a United States Supreme Court case involving Indian country jurisdiction in the United States that decided that opening up reservation lands for settlement by non-Indians does not constitute the intent to diminish reservation boundaries. Therefore, reservation boundaries would not be diminished unless specifically determined through acts of Congress.

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Oklahoma Tax Commission v. Sac & Fox Nation, 508 U.S. 114 (1993), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that absent explicit congressional direction to the contrary, it must be presumed that a State does not have jurisdiction to tax tribal members who live and work in Indian country, whether the particular territory consists of a formal or informal reservation, allotted lands, or dependent Indian communities.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Former Indian reservations in Oklahoma</span>

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Sharp v. Murphy, 591 U.S. ___ (2020), was a Supreme Court of the United States case of whether Congress disestablished the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation. After holding the case from the 2018 term, the case was decided on July 9, 2020, in a per curiam decision following McGirt v. Oklahoma that, for the purposes of the Major Crimes Act, the reservations were never disestablished and remain Indian country.

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Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, 597 U.S. 629 (2022), was a United States Supreme Court case related to McGirt v. Oklahoma, decided in 2020. In McGirt, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Congress never properly disestablished the Indian reservations of the Five Civilized Tribes in Oklahoma when granting its statehood, and thus almost half the state was still considered to be Native American land. As a result of McGirt, crimes under the Major Crimes Act by Native Americans in the reservations are treated as federal crimes rather than state crimes.

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References

  1. 1 2 Healy, Jack; Liptak, Adam (July 9, 2020). "Landmark Supreme Court Ruling Affirms Native American Rights in Oklahoma". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on July 11, 2020.
  2. ↑ Rubin, Jordan S. (July 9, 2020). "Supreme Court Tribal Treaty Decision Praised as Game Changer". Bloomberg Law. Archived from the original on July 11, 2020.
  3. ↑ State ex rel. Matloff v. Wallace , 2021 OK CR 21, 497 P.3d 686, cert. denied sub nom. Parish v. Oklahoma, 142 S. Ct. 757, 211 L. Ed. 2d 474 (2022) (holding McGirt does not apply retroactively).
  4. ↑ Cummings, Lily (January 12, 2022). "Landmark McGirt decision is no longer retroactive". KTUL . Archived from the original on January 16, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2023. But to Indian Country, calling this a 'victory' is just sugar-coating something they saw coming ... Cherokee Nation Attorney General, Sara Hill, said it's 'exactly' what the Supreme Court [in McGirt] predicted ... Tulsa Defense Attorney and enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation, Brett Chapman, said he thinks McGirt should apply retroactively.
  5. ↑ "Five Civilized Tribes | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". www.okhistory.org. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  6. ↑ Clinton, Fred S. (December 1915). "Oklahoma Indian History". The Indian School Journal. Vol. 16, no. 4. pp. 175–187.
  7. ↑ Barry Pritzker (2000). A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples . Oxford University Press. p.  389. ISBN   978-0-19-513877-1.
  8. ↑ "Trail of Tears". HISTORY. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  9. ↑ Millhiser, Ian (July 10, 2020). "The Supreme Court's landmark new Native American rights decision, explained". Vox . Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  10. 1 2 Cleary, Conor P. (May 2023). "The Rediscovery of Indian Country in Eastern Oklahoma". Oklahoma Bar Journal . 94 (5). Retrieved June 14, 2023.
  11. ↑ Pub. L.   59–234 , H.R. 12707, 34  Stat.   267 , enacted June 16, 1906
  12. ↑ Nagel, Rebecca (May 8, 2020). "Oklahoma's Suspect Argument in Front of the Supreme Court". The Atlantic . Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  13. ↑ Liptak, Adam (December 13, 2019). "Supreme Court to Rule on Whether Much of Oklahoma Is an Indian Reservation". The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Petition for Writ of Certiorari McGirt v. Oklahoma.
  15. 1 2 3 "McGirt v. Oklahoma". Harvard Law Review . 134: 600–609. November 10, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  16. ↑ Liptak, Adam (April 13, 2020). "The Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments by Phone. The Public Can Listen In". The New York Times. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  17. ↑ "McGirt v Oklahoma and Indian Nations Sovereignty - The JustPod (podcast) 20 Jul 2020". American Bar Association, Listen Notes. July 22, 2020. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  18. ↑ Liptak, Adam (May 11, 2020). "Supreme Court Weighs Whether Much of Oklahoma Is an Indian Reservation". The New York Times. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  19. ↑ Hurley, Lawrence (May 11, 2020). "U.S. Supreme Court weighs Oklahoma tribal authority dispute". Reuters . Retrieved May 12, 2020.
  20. 1 2 Healy, Jack; Liptak, Adam (July 9, 2020). "Landmark Supreme Court Ruling Affirms Native American Rights in Oklahoma". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved April 30, 2021.
  21. ↑ Feldman, Noah (July 10, 2020). "How the Creek Nation Finally Prevailed in Oklahoma". Bloomberg News . Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  22. 1 2 "Half of Oklahoma ruled to be Native American land". BBC. July 9, 2020. Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  23. ↑ Nagle, Rebecca (May 8, 2020). "Oklahoma's Suspect Argument in Front of the Supreme Court". The Atlantic . Retrieved July 10, 2020.
  24. ↑ Wolf, Richard; Johnson, Kevin (July 9, 2020). "Supreme Court gives Native Americans jurisdiction over eastern half of Oklahoma". USA Today . Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Muscogee (Creek) Nation". www.spthb.org. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  26. ↑ "The Cherokee Nation". www.spthb.org. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  27. ↑ "Choctaw Nation". www.spthb.org. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
  28. ↑ "Chickasaw Nation". www.spthb.org. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
  29. ↑ "Seminole Nation of Oklahoma". SPTHB. April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 30, 2021.
  30. ↑ Killnman, Curtis (October 21, 2021). "State appellate court extends McGirt ruling to include Quapaw Nation" . Tulsa World. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
  31. ↑ Killman, Curtis (May 11, 2023). "Ottawa, Peoria and Miami reservations still exist, Oklahoma appeals court says" . Tulsa World. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  32. ↑ Loveless, Tristan (March 13, 2024). "Future 'Bracker' test teased as appellate court affirms Wyandotte Reservation 4-1". NonDoc. Sustainable Journalism Foundation. Retrieved May 28, 2024.
  33. ↑ Curtis Killman (November 6, 2020). "Prosecution rests in retrial of Jimcy McGirt, man at center of landmark Supreme Court decision" . Tulsa World. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  34. ↑ Raache, Hicham (November 6, 2020). "Man at center of U.S. Supreme Court case that impacted OK justice system found guilty of sexually abusing child". KFOR-TV . Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  35. ↑ Curtis Killman (November 7, 2020). "Federal jury finds man at center of landmark Supreme Court ruling guilty in retrial" . Tulsa World. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  36. ↑ Cooper, Jonathan (August 25, 2021). "Man At Center Of Tribal Jurisdiction Ruling Sentenced To Life Without Parole In Federal Court". KOTV-TV .
  37. ↑ Dodd, Peggy (June 22, 2023). "Jimcy McGirt's conviction overturned by federal court". KOSU. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
  38. ↑ "Eastern District of Oklahoma | Jimcy McGirt Pleads Guilty to Aggravated Sexual Abuse in Indian Country | United States Department of Justice". December 6, 2023.
  39. ↑ Lee, David (May 2, 2024). "Landmark SCOTUS tribal sovereignty ruling capped by 30-year prison sentence". Courthouse News . Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  40. ↑ Andone, Dakin (March 12, 2021). "A convicted Oklahoma killer's death sentence was overturned because of a landmark US Supreme Court ruling". CNN . Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  41. 1 2 Richards, Dillion (April 27, 2021). "AG Hunter makes emergency filing with SCOTUS in wake of landmark McGirt decision". KOCO-TV . Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  42. ↑ Breasette, Austin (March 11, 2021). "Thousands of criminal cases to be reviewed, possibly dismissed, after McGirt ruling shows its effect on Shaun Bosse case". KFOR-TV . Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  43. ↑ Raache, Hicham (April 15, 2021). "Gov. Stitt says Supreme Court's McGirt ruling created 'public safety threat', asks Oklahomans to share stories; Cherokee Nation reacts". KFOR-TV . Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  44. ↑ Howe, Amy; Romoser, James (May 27, 2021). "Court puts relief for Oklahoma inmate on hold amid uncertainty about scope of McGirt". SCOTUSblog . Retrieved May 27, 2021.
  45. ↑ "Justices signal they could limit Indian Country ruling". Associated Press. May 26, 2021. Retrieved May 26, 2021.
  46. 1 2 3 Casteel, Chris (September 20, 2021). "O'Connor files new petitions asking high court to reverse McGirt". The Oklahoman . Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  47. ↑ "US Supreme Court reaffirms that McGirt is not retroactive". Associated Press. February 23, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2022– via KOKI-TV.
  48. ↑ Gilman, Curtis (October 25, 2021). "Tulsa, Owasso join state in seeking to overturn McGirt ruling" . Owasso Reporter . Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  49. ↑ Howe, Amy (January 21, 2022). "Justices will review scope of McGirt decision, but won't consider whether to overturn it". SCOTUSBlog . Retrieved January 21, 2022.
  50. ↑ Opinion supremecourt.gov
  51. ↑ "Oklahoma FBI Case Volume Unprecedented". Federal Bureau of Investigation. July 8, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  52. ↑ "1977 Northeast Oklahoma Girl Scout murders case gets fresh look in wake of 'McGirt' ruling". KOSU. July 6, 2023.
  53. ↑ "Supreme Court won't block a ruling favoring a Native American man cited for speeding in Tulsa". Associated Press. August 4, 2023. Retrieved August 6, 2023– via ABC News.
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