States should be allowed to prosecute non-Indians for crimes committed on Indian land, Oklahoma told the Supreme Court on April 27, after a court ruling two years ago threw the state’s judicial system into disarray by changing jurisdictional rules.
The case is Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, court file 21-429. The Supreme Court agreed on January 21 to take the case. Scheduled for 70 minutes, the hearing ran 131.
The case comes after McGirt v. Oklahoma, in which the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 on July 9, 2020, that most of eastern and some of central Oklahoma is Indian country because it hosted Indian reservations. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the court’s decision, which was joined by four liberal justices.
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