Nicholas Stamates on White Collar Crime in the City of Tulsa after McGirt and Castro-Huerta

Nicholas Stamates has posted “The Aftermath of McGirt and Castro-Huerta: Problems and Possible Solutions relating to White Collar Crime in the City of Tulsa,” recently published in the Texas Tech Law Review, on SSRN.

Here is the abstract:

The Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma drastically changed the legal jurisdiction of most of the state of Oklahoma under federal law. In 2017 the 10th Circuit held in Murphy v. Royal that the Oklahoma Enabling Act of 1906 never disestablished the reservations of the Five Civilized Tribes and the Supreme Court would concur with that opinion in McGirt v. Oklahoma which means that the Major Crimes Act and other federal and tribal laws relating to Indians now apply in Eastern Oklahoma, including the City of Tulsa, and not Oklahoma law in applicable cases. In doing so, the Supreme Court inadvertently created a white-collar crime jurisdictional nightmare but one that has many solutions that enshrine tribal sovereignty and corporate responsibility among Tulsa based businesses. These solutions include state and tribal compacts, congressional legislation and proactive measures by Tulsa corporations such as “McGirt forms” that list Indian status of involved parties under federal law in case of a crime, choice of law provisions in contracts for civil suits in Tribal Courts so that corporations know what to expect and can shape the outcome of a case and working with local law schools so that new hires are prepared for the post McGirt and Castro-Huerta landscape.

Oklahoma Federal Court Orders Immediate Release of Native Convict from State Custody

Here are the materials in Graham v. White (N.D. Okla.)

Tenth Circuit Decides Hooper v. City of Tulsa . . . Hooper 7, Tulsa 0

Here is the opinion in Hooper v. City of Tulsa.

Briefs here and here.

Substitute Hooper for Haley and Oklahoma for United States.

Tenth Circuit Rejects Habeas Petition from Prisoner Asserting McGirt-Type Claims

Here is the opinion in McGill v. Rankin.

Available brief here:

We don’t post many of these post-McGirt prisoner cases, but this is exemplary of the numerous rejected habeas petitions filed by prisoners claiming to be Indian and convicted of crimes inside of Indian country. This person was convicted of a crime in 2001. This was his fifth habeas petition, filed in 2023, and the first raising McGirt-related claims. This footnote is as close as these late habeas petitioners get to relief:

We note that another Oklahoma prisoner also successfully made the same argument as Mr. McGirt, which the Supreme Court recognized in its decision. See McGirt, 140 S. Ct. at 2460 (“While Oklahoma state courts have rejected any suggestion that the lands in question remain a reservation, the Tenth Circuit has reached the opposite conclusion.” (citing Murphy v. Royal, 875 F.3d 896, 907-09, 966 (10th Cir. 2017)). In Murphy, we issued a writ of habeas corpus after agreeing with the petitioner that he should not have been tried in state court but instead “should have been tried in federal court because he is an Indian and the offense occurred in Indian country.” 875 F.3d at 903.

It’s not much, eh? Remember Oklahoma in 2017-18?

Oklahoma’s cert petition in Royal v. Murphy (later Sharp v. Murphy).

Maybe yes (maybe?) on the pending prosecutions, but not so much the existing convictions, eh? Hmmmm.

Oklahoma SCT Briefs in Stroble v. Oklahoma Tax Commission

Here:

Yeah, I know, not a federal case.

Supplemental Briefs on Standing in Hooper v. Tulsa

Here:

Oral argument audio here.

Briefs here.

Jaune Smith

Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Finds Ottawa and Miami Reservations Remain Extant

Here are the materials in State of Oklahoma v. Brester:

Seneca-Cayuga Sues Oklahoma Officials over Reservation Boundaries Post-McGirt

Here is the complaint in Seneca-Cayuga Nation v. Drummond (N.D. Okla.):

Maybe time for some burn barrel protesting.

Update: Here is the complaint in Eastern Shawnee Tribe v. Drummond:

Tenth Circuit Oral Argument Audio in Hooper v. City of Tulsa

Here.

Briefs here.

Teepee incense here:

Velchik and Zhang — An Empirical Examination of Restoring Reservation Status in Oklahoma

Michael K. Velchik & Jeffery Y. Zhang have published “Restoring Indian Reservation Status: An Empirical Analysis” in the Yale Journal on Regulation. PDF

I posted about this excellent article a while back when it was in draft form.

This is not Oklahoma.