State needs 5 more judgeships due to McGirt, judiciary says
The federal Judicial Conference recommended Tuesday that five new federal judgeships be created in Oklahoma to handle the “rapid and substantial” increase in criminal caseloads caused by the recognition of the Five Tribes’ reservations.
The conference, the policy-making arm of the federal court system, said Congress should create three new judgeships in the Eastern District of Oklahoma, based in Muskogee, and two new judgeships in the Northern District, based in Tulsa.
The Eastern District’s criminal case filings jumped 400% — from 66 to 333 — and the Northern District caseload rose by 200% — from 190 to 561 — in the 12 months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation was never officially disestablished by Congress, according to the conference.
The ruling, which came in the case of McGirt v. Oklahoma in July, 2020, meant that crimes involving Native Americans must be prosecuted in federal or tribal courts.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals this year extended the ruling to the other four members of the Five Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole nations. Their reservations comprise most of eastern Oklahoma and some counties in central Oklahoma.
Federal and tribal courts have been handling hundreds of new cases along with cases that were overturned by state courts in the wake of the McGirt decision.
The Eastern District currently has one authorized judgeship, the Northern District has three, and the two districts share a judgeship, according to the Judicial Conference.
The Biden administration asked for $82 million in increased funding next year for U.S. attorneys offices, the FBI and other federal agencies.
That funding request did not include the new judgeships.