OKMULGEE, Okla. – Oral arguments before the Muscogee Creek Nation Supreme Court in SC-2024-05 were scheduled to be held on Jan 10. SC-2024-05 seeks to determine the constitutionality of NCA 24-077. NCA 24-077 is a law that gives the MCN National Council and Principal Chief the ability to appoint temporary MCN Supreme Court justices when seated justices recuse themselves from cases. The oral arguments were scheduled to be held via Zoom, but were cancelled due to the snowstorm that hit Okmulgee. Oral arguments have not been rescheduled as of the publication of this story. Until a decision is made in this case, there is a stay in place in SC-2023-10, MCN Citizenship Board v. Rhonda K. Grayson.
A stay until March 18 has been issued in the MCN lawsuit against the City of Tulsa. The stay was issued so that both parties could negotiate a settlement. The lawsuit was a result of Tulsa’s continued law enforcement actions against Native Americans in the wake of the Hooper decision in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. In the Hooper decision, the Tenth Circuit rejected Tulsa’s assertion of jurisdiction over Native Americans under the Curtis Act. These negotiations follow the Dec 2, 2024 swearing in of the new Mayor of Tulsa, Monroe Nichols. During Nichols’ mayoral campaign he asserted that he would acknowledge and stand with tribal sovereignty.
It is the year anniversary of oral arguments held Jan 17, 2024, at the Oklahoma Supreme Court in Alicia Stroble v. Oklahoma Tax Commission. The Court has not issued a decision in the case. The Stroble case seeks to determine whether tribal citizens who work for their tribal government and live on the tribal reservation have to pay income tax to the state on those wages. Alicia Stroble, a Mvskoke citizen who lives on the MCN reservation, is employed by the MCN National Council. Currently, tribal governmental employees pay both federal and state income tax whether they are tribal citizens or not. Oklahoma has administrative code on the books that states that if a tribal citizen lives in their tribe’s “Indian country” and works for their tribal government, they do not have to pay state income tax. Following the McGirt decision that held that the Muscogee Creek Nation reservation was not disestablished, Stroble filed for the exemption for tribal income with the Oklahoma Tax Commission for the 2017, 2018, and 2019 tax years. The Tax Commission denied the claim. Stroble protested the denial which led to the issue being heard before the Tax Commission’s Administrative Law Judge Ernest Short. After hearing testimony, Judge Short ruled that Stroble qualified for the exemption. The Tax Commission then overruled Judge Short and issued an order that Stroble did not qualify for the exemption. This action was then appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Mvskoke Media will have ongoing coverage of these developing stories.
