Posted on 07/09/2020 8:05:23 AM PDT by Stravinsky
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled by a 5-4 margin that nearly half of Oklahoma is an Indian reservation in the eyes of the criminal-justice system, preventing state authorities from prosecuting offenses there that involve Native Americans.
The decision was potentially one of the most consequential legal victories for Native Americans in decades. It was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Westerner who has sided with tribes in previous cases and joined the court’s more liberal members.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The Federal Government needs to give the Confederate States their property back.
Good question. This decision is going to open the door to legal challenges and other areas.
Why should they have made any treaties with the Indians period?
They lost.
> But then....what about double jeopardy. <
The interesting thing about double jeopardy is that it only attaches to one level of government at a time.
Here’s what I mean. Suppose you commit a crime, and are tried in a state court. And there you are found not guilty. You cannot be tried in a state court again, as double jeopardy would apply.
But if your crime also broke some federal law, you can still be tried in a federal court. So the state gets one go at you. And the feds get one go at you.
As to just where the Indian Nations fit in, I don’t know.
Relax. I live in Oklahoma. When the late Wilma Mankiller, God rest her soul, was Chief of the Cherokee nation, she removed the blood quantum requirement for Cherokees, so that she could get more government help for her people. (Most tribes have a requirement that in order to be a tribal member, you must have at least 25% Indian blood). So now, anyone with a tiny, provable amount of Cherokee blood -— and I mean tiny -— is entitled to be a member of the Cherokee Nation. So, overnight, a huge number of Oklahomans (as well as anywhere else in the U.S.) suddenly were considered Cherokee. And while many traditional American Indians vote democrat, Oklahoma is a politically red state, and most of its “Cherokees” are mostly white, and vote Republican. And that’s not going to change. (And BTW, a lot of democrats here, Indian or not, are new Trump converts, this time around).
How many square inches of America will be left after this takes its natural course?
Oklahoma Injuns are super conservative.
The bill, and it is past due. /sarcasm
Where’s my casino ?
I’m looking at an 1890 Map by Rand McNally. It is very definite. It shows Oklahoma and Indian Territory. I’ll see if I can find a link to post.
It is NOT a reservation. It is an Indian Territory.
This is incorrect. They said the Federal court, by law, has jurisdiction over this crime, not the state court. So it goes back to trial in a US Federal court.
Oddly enough, this is a ruling I would expect from a truly conservative court.
My logic is that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the “dead raccoon under the back porch” of federal agencies. And neither the Democrats nor Republican liberals have been willing to deal with the it or any of the other legal cesspits within the government. They are too messy, take too much thought, and their degree of difficulty means that only conservatives have the brains and guts to tackle them.
But there is no way to treat the long infected wound than first to remove the old encrusted, dirty bandage covering it.
So what of this case? Simply put, even before this decision, half of OK was Indian territory in the law, however not enforced or applied. This decision just removes the old bandage and points this out.
To fix the problem is not the SCOTUS problem, but that of the congress and President.
And expect to see more of this in the future. Such decisions are neither left or right, but they are absolutely necessary to get US law back on track.
But neither conservative nor liberal commentators will notice.
“Justice Gorsuch wrote. ‘Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word.’”
This does not suggest protection of a criminal but what authority has jurisdiction over prosecuting that criminal.
> It is NOT a reservation. It is an Indian Territory. <
I’m not an expert on this sort of thing (obviously). What is the difference? Does the tribe have more legal power in one of them than in the other?
...by a 5-4 margin... preventing state authorities from prosecuting offenses there that involve Native Americans... It was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Westerner who has sided with tribes in previous cases and joined the court’s more liberal members.
Regardless of whether they should have made treaties, the fact is that they did. And Article VI Sec 2 of the US Constitution says that treaties made are the supreme law of the land. It is unconstitutional for the US to violate treaties, even if it might be in our own best interest at the time.
We better break up this country while we can. Pick something sides.
“ There’s not much left holding us together as a country anymore.”
I tell you this, if there was another “New World” out there across an ocean, we’d all be getting on the ships right now to get the Hell out of here.
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