Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., who disagrees with McGirt, asked Edwin C. Needler, a federal government attorney, if Oklahoma’s penal laws are being properly enforced.
“Is the situation stable?” Judge Alito asked. “Will the federal government be able to provide enough federal agents, enough federal prosecutors, enough federal judges, enough federal courtrooms, enough federal probation officers to deal with the workload that was previously handled by state law enforcement?” ? ”
Mr Kneedler, who argued in favor of Mr Castro-Huerta’s position that the state could not prosecute his case given the victim’s identity, said: “I am not here to minimize the challenge that results from the decision in McGirt added that the federal government had transferred resources to the state and asked Congress for $ 40 million for more prosecutors, FBI agents and a prison seat.
Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, the author of the majority opinion in the McGirt decision, said there were good reasons to apply to non-Indian offenders with Indian victims in reservations. To begin with, he said, the Supreme Court has made statements in support of the idea about 10 times.
Judge Gorsuch also cited a long history of state hostility to the interests of Indian tribes. “We have the treaties, well, that exist and promise this tribe from before the ‘Path of Tears’ that they will not be subject to state jurisdiction precisely because it is known that states are their enemies,” he said, referring to the forced relocation of about 100,000 Indians from their homes in the Southeast in the 1800s.
Judge Gorsuch appears to have urged his colleagues to support McGirt’s decision in the face of protests from some politicians and members of the public. “Are we going to wither today because of a social media campaign?” He asked.
Judge Brett M. Cavanaugh, who disagreed with McGirt, called for an approach that would allow for both federal and state prosecution. “Indian victims are not currently protected because the federal government does not have the resources to prosecute all these crimes,” he said. “And that won’t displace the federal government.”
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