Supreme Court to Rule on Whether Much of Oklahoma Is an Indian Reservation

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether much of eastern Oklahoma is an Indian reservation, a question that could have enormous consequences for the area’s 1.8 million residents in matters of criminal justice and commerce. The court tried to resolve the question in a different case in its last term, but it appeared to have deadlocked 4 to 4. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch had recused himself from the case, which was an appeal from a decision of the court on which he once sat, the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver. On the last day of the Supreme Court’s earlier term, on June 27, the court said it would hear another set of arguments in that case, Sharp v. Murphy, No. 17-1107, in its new term, which started in October. But that has not happened, and it was not clear that another argument would break the deadlock so long as the court remained short-handed. The court appears to have decided to hear the new case, McGirt v. Oklahoma, No. 18-9526, an appeal from a state court’s decision, to ensure that the issue could be decided by a nine-member court...NY Times

...When the first case was heard, the justices reached back to 1907 to determine whether Congress, using imprecise language, failed to disestablish the 1866 boundaries of the Indian reservation. If so, virtually half of Oklahoma – home to 1.8 million residents and including Tulsa, its second-largest city – would remain Native American territory and subject to federal, not state, laws. The 10th Circuit had ruled the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute the gruesome murder because it happened within 3 million acres belonging to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. In all, that threatened more than 19 million acres in eastern Oklahoma once inhabited by five Indian tribes. Oklahoma told the court "that cannot be right," since it "would plunge eastern Oklahoma into civil, criminal and regulatory turmoil and overturn 111 years of Oklahoma history." The Trump administration took the state's side, telling the justices that Congress long ago broke up the Creek Nation's lands, abolished its courts and set a timetable for the tribe's dissolution. Ten states, from Maine to Texas to Montana, warned that the boundaries of tribal lands have jurisdictional consequences there as well. They said a decision in the tribe's favor "would be confusing and costly at best, and disastrous at worst," affecting health and energy policy, environmental regulation, economic development and taxes...USA Today