12/30/2023 0 Comments Eitr tulsa![]() It was an argument put forth by the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs of Police in the fall of 2020 along with the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group attorney Matt Love as a way to challenge the summer's McGirt ruling. In their brief to the 10th Circuit, Tulsa said that under section 14 of the Curtis Act “all inhabitants” of cities and towns organized under Arkansas law, “without regard to race, shall be subject to all laws and ordinances of such city or town governments, and shall have equal rights, privileges, and protections therein.” The law dealt a blow to tribal governments as it dissolved tribal courts and paved the way for statehood. The City of Tulsa claims they have jurisdiction to ticket drivers like Hooper under a pre-statehood law known as the Curtis Act, an 1898 law meant to force allotment on tribal governments. ![]() ![]() They do a lot for our community in so many ways, and their relationship is important to our city,” said Tulsa City Council Vice President Jeannie Cue. Others in Tulsa’s city government want to get the lawsuits behind them. Supreme Court's ruling in McGirt.īynum put much of the onus to work together on the tribes, arguing Native people abide by city codes and ordinances. And if we can get that framework worked out, all that litigation that the city is involved in is irrelevant, and we’ll be out of that business,” he said.īut the Muscogee Nation says the city continues to ticket Native drivers, despite the order from the 10th Circuit and the U.S. “I’m committed to meeting with the tribal governments as frequently and as long as we have to meet to work this out. Bynum announced at his State of the City address that he wanted to work with the tribes to create a tribal-municipal framework of governance that would resolve these legal disputes. The Muscogee Nation filed a lawsuit just weeks after Tulsa Mayor G.T. The 47-year-old Choctaw citizen remembers telling Dunn, "How can somebody write you a ticket on your own land when you’re Native? It just doesn't seem like that's right.”Įven though the McGirt decision was settled, the question of who has civil jurisdiction is still very much alive in the minds of Tulsa city leaders, who challenged Hooper's claim that the city cannot collect ticket fines from Native drivers like himself. He called his lawyer John Dunn, who agreed to take up the case. "From the day I got pulled over, I thought that it was wrong," Hooper said. Hooper says he paid the $150 fine for speeding, but insisted he was not subject to the City of Tulsa's jurisdiction. Because of this decision, Native people in eastern Oklahoma can only be prosecuted in federal or tribal courts for felony crimes. Supreme Court ruled eastern Oklahoma is still Native land. ![]() It's also one of several cases rankling the governor and his administration over the strength of the McGirt v. Kevin Stitt over whether cities and towns have the authority to ticket Indigenous drivers. His case has become a flashpoint between tribal nations in Oklahoma and Gov. The court said the city cannot ticket Native drivers when they break the law on Native land. Hooper's case ultimately landed in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, where it was argued this summer, and Tulsa lost. Sure enough, the officer obliged, and Hooper said he accepted the ticket.īut what happened next has been the subject of a nearly six-year legal battle over whether or not the City of Tulsa has the authority to ticket Native drivers for traffic violations in city limits. Hooper says he pulled himself over and waited for the officer. He remembered thinking to himself that he would shortly be seeing red and blue lights in his rearview mirror. Hooper said he clocked in 10 mph over the speed limit when he passed a Tulsa police officer. "I was actually headed to go meet some friends, and I was speeding, for lack of a better word ," Hooper admitted with a boyish laugh. He just bought a new truck and was blasting The Cure while cruising down Sheridan Avenue. Justin Hooper remembers very clearly the day he was pulled over in August 2018 for speeding.
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