2023-2024 Form

Instructions and help about Choctaw Nation Expands Judicial Service

[Music] since the mcgirt ruling in 2019 the choctaw nation's judicial system has grown by leaps and bounds in order to better serve the choctaw people and exercise our sovereignty we expanded our department of public safety and prosecutors office we also created a public defender's office and updated our tribal codes to allow our court system to operate more efficiently i was also proud to appoint our first full-time district court judge amy pierce in january of this year i met judge pierce for a slice of pie at magnolia cafe in durant to discuss the changes and challenges of our growing judicial system so what the mcgirt decision is saying is that tribal citizens they are members of a sovereign government that was not always treated that way in the state of oklahoma the state of oklahoma would come in and try tribal citizens for criminal matters when they should not have been and so that's what the supreme court effectively recognized in the mcgirt decision so the choctaw nation has t