In 1997, Jimcy McGirt, an enrolled member of the Seminole tribe, had been sentenced to life in prison in Oklahoma and he sought post-conviction relief on the theory that the state did not have jurisdiction over crimes committed on Native reservations. This was not the first legal case to attempt this type of appeal, but it was the first to make it to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court heard the case of McGirt v. Oklahoma in the spring of 2020.
Attendees at a panel following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that found that the Muscogee Nation had remained a reservation after Oklahoma became a state on July 13, 2021, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Photo by Michael Noble Jr./Tulsa World via AP. Source: The Intercept
On June 9, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that the state did not have jurisdiction over the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s reservation, and therefore had no criminal jurisdiction over McGirt. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Neil Gorsuch, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor voted in the majority. As a result of this ruling, jurisdiction over crimes on reservations went to the federal government, and thousands of state cases are continuing to be reviewed by federal courts.
In a statement released following the Court’s ruling, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation stated,
The Supreme Court today kept the United States’ sacred promise to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of a protected reservation. Today’s decision will allow the Nation to honor our ancestors by maintaining our established sovereignty and territorial boundaries. We will continue to work with federal and state law enforcement agencies to ensure that public safety will be maintained throughout the territorial boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
It is important to keep in mind that, with the landmark decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, as journalist Rebecca Nagle notes,
The historic status of the McGirt decision is ironic when you understand what happened legally. The Supreme Court didn’t overturn anything, strike anything down, or change its own precedent. All the court did was follow the law. But still, that was radical.
Additional Resources
This Land, a documentary podcast by Rebecca Nagle
In By the Fire We Carry, Rebecca Nagle Traces the Complex History of the Cherokee Nation by Rebecca Nagle (Teen Vogue)
McGirt v. Oklahoma: One Year Later by Brandon King (405 Magazine)
Rebecca Nagle’s By the Fire We Carry Questions Treatment of Indigenous Nations, Democracy at Large by Sarah Liese (KOSU / NPR)
Supreme Court Decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma Affirms Tribal Sovereignty, Upholds Treaty Rights by Lawrence Roberts (ASU, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, American Indian Policy Institute)
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