SIGNIFICANT SCOTUS NON-RULING

 By Bob Walsh

                                      

On Friday SCOTUS declined to diddle with a lower court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma.  It is an interesting jurisdictional case.

The lower court ruling invalidated a speeding ticket issued to a Native American man stopped and cited for speeding by the Tulsa cops.  Tulsa exists within the boundary of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.  In fact almost all of eastern Oklahoma is still technically an Indian reservation.  A three-judge panel of the 10th U S Circuit Court of Appeals reversed two lower court rulings when they stated that the local cops did not have authority over Native citizens on Native land.

The matter is not 100% settled.  The lower courts action is still in progress, SCOTUS merely declined to intervene on an emergency basis while the matter was being adjudicated.