| More on this story from yesterday. |
"The federal government promised the Creek a reservation in perpetuity," Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. "Over time, Congress has diminished that reservation. It has sometimes restricted and other times expanded the Tribe’s authority. But Congress has never withdrawn the promised reservation."
"As a result, many of the arguments before us today follow a sadly familiar pattern. Yes, promises were made, but the price of keeping them has become too great, so now we should just cast a blind eye. We reject that thinking. If Congress wishes to withdraw its promises, it must say so," reads the decision.
Gorsuch wrote that to rule "otherwise would be to elevate the most brazen and longstanding injustices over the law."
According to The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
, the case was brought to the Supreme Court after Jimcy McGirt, a Native American man who was convicted of sex crimes against a child in state court, argued that his conviction should be overturned, and that he be tried in federal court instead, because he committed his alleged crimes on Indian land.