The Muscogee (Creek) tribal group owns most of Oklahoma. |
The Supreme Court handed a tribal group a huge victory. About half of the land in Oklahoma is within a Native American reservation, a decision that will have major consequences for both past and future criminal and civil cases.
The decision was 5-4. The Court's progressive wing includes Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan. Also the conservative justice who was appointed by Donald J. Trump in 2017, Neil Gorsuch ruled in favor of the tribe.
The ruling will have significant legal implications for Eastern Oklahoma. Much of Tulsa, the state's second largest city with a population of 402,000 residents is located on Muscogee land.
"The Supreme Court today kept the United States' sacred promise to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of a protected reservation," the tribe said in a statement. "Today's decision will allow the Nation to honor our ancestors by maintaining our established sovereignty and territorial boundaries."
The four justices who dissented were Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh.
The Supreme Court's controversial 5-4 decisions. The progressive wing and one conservative justice ruled in favor of tribal groups. |
Gorsuch siding with the progressive wing does at least give some hope that the Court isn't going to be ruling like a bunch of rubber stamps.
"Justice Gorsuch has made very clear in his short time on the bench that he takes the text deeply seriously," said Ian Heath Gershengorn, an attorney for Jenner & Block, who argued the McGirt's case before the Court. "And I think you saw that the core of his analysis today was a textual one. We felt like we had the right argument at the right time for the right justice."
Just about half of Oklahoma is part of a tribal reservation. |
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