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Native American Law; Federal Indian Law; Tribal Sovereignty; Tribal Authority; Tribal Law; Tribal Land; Indian Country; State Authority; State Jurisdiction; Congressional Authority; Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta; Worcester v. Georgia; Williams v. Lee; Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe; United States v. Cooley; Supreme Court Jurisprudence
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Tribal Sovereignty Preempted, Michael Doran
Tribal Sovereignty Preempted, Michael Doran
Brooklyn Law Review
In June of 2022, the US Supreme Court held in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that a state may prosecute a non-Indian for a crime committed against an Indian within Indian country. That decision effectively overruled Worcester v. Georgia, an 1832 landmark case in which Chief Justice Marshall said that state law “can have no force” in Indian country. Although the conventional wisdom about Castro-Huerta sees the case as a radical departure from first principles of federal Indian law, this article argues that Castro-Huerta is the natural—although deeply deplorable—next step in a long line of Supreme Court cases expanding state governmental authority …