Justices expand state’s reach to prosecute on Oklahoma tribal lands
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that Oklahoma can prosecute non-Native Americans for crimes committed on tribal land when the victim is Native American.
The 5-4 decision cut back on the high court’s ruling from 2020 that said a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation. The first decision left the state unable to prosecute Native Americans accused of crimes on tribal lands that include most of Tulsa, the state’s second-largest city.
A state court later ruled that the Supreme Court decision also stripped the state of its ability to prosecute anyone for crimes committed on tribal land if either the victim or perpetrator is Native American. That would have left the federal government with sole authority to prosecute such cases, and federal officials had acknowledged that they lack the resources to prosecute all the crimes that have fallen to them.
But the high court’s new ruling said the state also can step in when only the victims are tribal members.
“The State’s interest in protecting crime victims includes both Indian and non-Indian victims,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the court.
In a dissent joined by the court’s three liberal members, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that the decision “allows Oklahoma to intrude on a feature of tribal sovereignty recognized since the founding.”
The case highlighted the strained relationship between tribes in Oklahoma and Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has fought to return legal jurisdiction over tribal lands to the state.
Stitt is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, which is the country’s largest Native American tribe by population with about 400,000 citizens, about 261,000 of whom live in Oklahoma.
The case stemmed from a state court decision to toss the conviction against Victor Castro-Huerta, who is not Native American. CastroHuerta was charged by prosecutors with malnourishment of his disabled 5-year-old stepdaughter, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
He has since pleaded guilty to a federal child neglect charge in exchange for a seven-year prison term.
Israeli leader won’t run: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who led a broad but fragile coalition government that came unraveled barely a year after taking office, announced Wednesday that he will not run in upcoming elections.
Bennett’s government announced last week that it would dissolve the Knesset ahead of elections expected this fall, but the voting required for dissolution has been bogged down by disputes with the opposition.
“I strived as prime minister to care for all citizens, regardless of who they voted for,” he said in a brief primetime address.
Bennett’s office said he will continue to serve as alternate prime minister in a caretaker government to be led by Yair Lapid, the architect of the coalition who is currently foreign minister.
Elections are expected in October or November.
Migrant tragedies: A flimsy boat collapsed and sank in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya’s coast, leaving at least 30 people including women and children missing and feared dead, an international charity said Wednesday.
The vessel sank in the deadly central Mediterranean Sea route, said Doctors Without Borders, also known by its abbreviation MSF for the French name of the group.
The missing migrants include five women and eight children, MSF said.
Libyan authorities also said Wednesday they found the bodies of 20 migrants who died around 75 miles from the border with Chad.
The Ambulance and Emergency Authority in the southeastern city of Kufra said the migrants were on their way from Chad when their vehicle broke down about 190 miles south of the city.
Energy lease auctions: The U.S. government this week is holding its first onshore oil and natural gas drilling lease auctions since President Joe Biden took office after a federal court blocked the administration’s attempt to suspend such sales because of climate change worries.
The online auctions
conclude Thursday. About 200 square miles of federal lands were offered for lease in eight western states with most of the parcels in Wyoming.
A coalition of 10 environmental groups said in a lawsuit filed before the sales began that they were illegal because officials acknowledged the climate change impacts but proceeded anyway.
Biden suspended new leasing shortly after taking office in January 2021. A federal judge in Louisiana ordered the sales to resume, saying Interior officials had offered no “rational explanation” for canceling them and only Congress could do so.
Parnas sentenced: Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who was a figure in former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment investigation, was sentenced Wednesday to 20 months in prison for fraud and campaign finance crimes.
Parnas, 50, had sought leniency on grounds that
he’d cooperated with the Congressional probe of Trump and his efforts to get Ukrainian leaders to investigate President Joe Biden’s son.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken didn’t give Parnas credit for that assistance, which came only after the Soviet-born businessman was facing criminal charges. Prosecutors had sought six years.
The judge also ordered Parnas to pay $2.3 million in restitution.
Mich. school shooting:
The parents of a teenager wounded during a mass shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan are suing the shop that sold the handgun used to kill four students and injure six other people.
The complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Detroit on behalf of Matthew and Mary Mueller accuses Acme Shooting Goods LLC of negligently or unlawfully supplying the gun through a straw sale.
Authorities have said James Crumbley bought the 9 mm semiautomatic handgun used in the Nov. 30 shooting as an early Christmas gift for his son, Ethan, who was 15 at the time.
The lawsuit says Ethan accompanied his father to Acme Shooting Goods several days before the shooting and “engaged in behavior or made one or more statements while in the store which further indicated that the Acme gun was intended for” Ethan.
Acme Shooting Goods was obligated to train, supervise and monitor employees to identify and prevent so-called straw purchases, according to the lawsuit. A straw purchase is when a person buys a gun to sell or give to someone prohibited from having one.
The Muellers’ son suffered gunshot wounds to a hand and his face. He was one of six students and one teacher wounded in the shooting at the school, located about 30 miles north of Detroit.