WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, confronting the consequences of its ruling last year that much of eastern Oklahoma falls within an Indian reservation, said on Wednesday that it would temporarily block a decision from an Oklahoma court that threw out a state conviction of a death row inmate. The state court had said the Supreme Court’s ruling required the move. The court’s three liberal members — Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — dissented from the Supreme Court’s order, which gave no reasons and said it would remain in force while the court considered whether to hear the state’s appeal. But the order suggested that the court might reconsider or narrow its 5-to-4 decision last year in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which said that a vast chunk of Oklahoma, including much of Tulsa, the state’s second-biggest city, was made up of Indian reservations. The decision barred prosecutions of Native Americans on those lands by state or local law enforcement, saying they must instead face justice in federal or tribal courts.

Source: New York Times May 26, 2021 16:41 UTC