Supreme Court declines to block ruling favoring Choctaw man cited for speeding in Tulsa

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday left in place a lower court ruling that invalidated a speeding ticket against a Native American man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, because the city is located within the boundaries of an Indian reservation.

The justices rejected an emergency appeal by Tulsa to block the ruling while the legal case continues. The order is the latest consequence of the high court’s landmark 2020 decision which found that much of eastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa, remains an Indian reservation.

Justin Hooper, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, was cited for speeding in 2018 by Tulsa police in a part of the city within the historic boundaries of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. He paid a $150 fine for the ticket, but filed a lawsuit after the Supreme Court’s ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma. He argued that the city did not have jurisdiction because his offense was committed by a Native American in Indian Country. A municipal court and a federal district court judge both sided with the city, but a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision.

There were no noted dissents among the justices Friday, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a short separate opinion, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, in which he said that Tulsa’s appeal raised an important question about whether the city can enforce municipal laws against Native Americans.

Kavanaugh wrote that nothing in the appeals court decision “prohibits the City from continuing to enforce its municipal laws against all persons, including Indians, as the litigation progresses.”

Experts on tribal law say there is an easy solution — for Tulsa to enter into prosecution agreements with various tribal nations like many cities and towns in eastern Oklahoma already have.

“It has always been the case that the City of Tulsa has the authority to write tickets and send those over to our various nations,” said Sara Hill, attorney general of the Cherokee Nation, which also has reservation land that encompasses parts of north Tulsa. “They simply haven’t been doing that…”

Under the agreements with municipalities, the portion of the revenue from tickets that is typically remitted to the state of Oklahoma is instead sent to the tribal nation whose reservation the city or town is located in, Hill said. The rest of the money can be retained by the city or town.

Under such arrangements, city police officers can identify whether a defendant is a member of a Native American tribe and simply use an alternate ticket book, said John Dunn, an attorney who represented Hooper in the case. Any pleas, warrants, or other judicial action that would require a judge’s signature would then be forwarded for consideration by a tribal judge.