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1 1 (July 24, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdbch0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ~* or 101 ' Researh Service This Land Is Whose Land? The McGirt v. Oklahoma Decision and Considerations for Congress July 24, 2020 On July 9, 2020, the Supreme Court announced its decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma-hailed by some as the most significant Indian Law case of the century. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court held that land reserved for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in the 19h century remained Indian country for criminal jurisdiction purposes. In an opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Court held that Congress had established a reservation for the tribe (Creek Nation). Despite creating the State of Oklahoma and limiting tribal sovereignty within that area in the intervening years, the Court further held that Congress had never disestablished the Creek reservation in eastern Oklahoma. This Legal Sidebar explains the origins of the case, sketches the contours of the decision, explores what remains undecided or unknown, and discusses what Congress could do to clarify, change, or cement this new status quo. How the Question Came to the Supreme Court In 2018, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider an appeal from an Oklahoma death penalty case involving Patrick Murphy, a Creek Nation member. Murphy killed a fellow tribal member in eastern Oklahoma. The validity of Murphy's murder conviction turned on whether he committed his crime on the Creek reservation-a reservation that Oklahoma argued no longer existed. Justice Gorsuch recused himself from the Murphy case-presumably because he participated in discussions about it while he was a judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. When the 2018 Term expired without a decision, many commentators assumed the remaining eight members of the U.S. Supreme Court (Court) had split 4-4 and tabled the case rather than issue an opinion without a majority. In the 2019 Term, although Murphy was due to be reargued, the Court decided to hear another case-in which all nine Justices would participate-that raised a similar question. Jimcy McGirt, a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, was convicted for serious crimes committed in a part of Oklahoma that he claimed was within the still-existing Creek reservation. McGirt argued that the Major Crimes Act barred Oklahoma from prosecuting him for those crimes. The question facing the Court, then, was whether the Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB10527 CRS LegM Sideba Prepaimed for Mernbei-s and Comrm ttees of Coqgr ss ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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