Stroble files petition for U.S. Supreme Court review in tax case

MVSKOKE RESERVATION – On Sept. 29, Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen Alicia Stroble asked the United States Supreme Court to review the decision made by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which decided she must pay state income tax despite previous lower court decisions. 

Stroble, who works as the Secretary for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Council, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, which would require the Oklahoma Supreme Court to send the case to the Supreme Court for review if accepted. She did so after the Oklahoma Supreme Court, in July 2025, declined to extend the McGirt decision to issues of taxation and other civil issues in a 6-3 ruling. The justices found that the 2020 McGirt ruling only applied to criminal acts and only extends to the Major Crimes Act, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over state courts when certain major or heinous crimes are involved.

Attorneys representing the Oklahoma Tax Commission have filed for an extension on the deadline to respond to the writ of certiorari. If approved, the deadline for the Oklahoma Tax Commission to respond would be extended from Oct. 31 to Dec. 1.

Mvskoke Media reached out to Stroble’s legal team for comment on the ongoing legal proceedings against the Oklahoma Tax Commission l and spoke to Elizabeth Prelogar of Cooley LLP. 

Prelogar said in a statement, “In an unbroken line of cases, the Supreme Court has held that States have no power to tax the income of tribal citizens who live and work within their tribes’ Indian country. Under those precedents, Oklahoma lacks authority to tax the income of Alicia Stroble, a Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen who lives and works within the Nation’s Reservation. The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision permitting that taxation is wrong and warrants Supreme Court review.”