Sherrard Conversation | "McGirt v. Oklahoma: How 19th Century Congressional Policies Inform 21st Century Understandings About the Extra-Constitutionality of American Indian Tribes"

[Bookings will open at 10:00 on Wednesday 23 September]

The Honourable J.Matthew Martin in conversation with Master Bernard Richmond.

The June, 2020 holding by the Supreme Court of the United States in McGirt v. Oklahoma that a large portion of eastern Oklahoma, including most of the city of Tulsa, was, in fact, within an Indian reservation belonging to the Creek Nation startled many observers. The antecedents of this 21st Century decision lie in 18th and 19th Century American colonial policies and jurisprudence. In this conversation we will explore those antecedents in an endeavor to place McGirt into context and make some predictions about its fallout.

The Honorable J. Matthew Martin is the first American Bar Association(ABA) Tribal Court Fellow. In 2013 Judge Martin retired from the Cherokee Court, the Tribal Court for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians after eleven years of service. He has written extensively on issues of traffic safety among the United States’ indigenous population and the jurisdiction of Tribal Courts. His book, “The Cherokee Supreme Court: 1823-1835" is being published this fall by Carolina Academic Press. Judge Martin has spoken nationally and internationally on issues ranging from federal Indian law to criminal law and the judicial process. For over 25 years, Judge Martin has been Board Certified as a Specialist in Federal and State Criminal Law by the North Carolina State Bar.  In the 1991 Term, at age 31, he argued Wade v. United States before the Supreme Court of the United States.  He received a BA with Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a JD from the UNC School of Law.  He also holds a Ph.D. in Judicial Studies from the University of Nevada-Reno.  In 2014 the ABA’s National Conference of Specialized Court Judges awarded him the Franklin Flaschner Award, as the United States’ outstanding specialized court judge.
 

This event is for members only.

Click here to see details of the QS Requirements and how to be credited with the QS for this session

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify instances when the treaty power of the United States of America applies to relations between the government and the indigenous population of the country.
2. Formulate assumptions based upon a greater understanding of the extraconstitutionality of American Indian Tribes.
3. Analyze with greater insight the policy of the Supreme Court of the United States with regard to American Indian Tribes.

Links to the Professional Statement, wider workings of the Bar, administration of justice or a public interest matter

The McGirt case sparked great public interest, not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom. The use of the courts to grapple with post-colonial issues is a matter of great import worldwide.

Click here to view the BSB's Professional Statement

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