U.S. judiciary seeks more Oklahoma judges after Supreme Court ruling

(Reuters) - The federal judiciary is asking Congress for five more judges in Oklahoma following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that recognized parts of Oklahoma as Native American reservation land and barred state prosecutions of crimes in those areas.

The request on Tuesday from the U.S. Judicial Conference, the judiciary's policymaking body, came in addition to a recommendation it made to Congress earlier this year to create 79 new judgeships, mostly in district courts to help alleviate growing caseloads nationally.

In July 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court held the site where a crime was committed in Oklahoma should have been recognized as part of a reservation based on the historical claim of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, putting it beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities.

The 5-4 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma meant that for the first time much of eastern Oklahoma was legally considered reservation land. It was later extended to four additional tribal nations in Oklahoma.

The ruling has upended criminal cases in the state and has shifted the prosecution of the most serious crimes on tribal land from state court to federal or tribal court in much of eastern Oklahoma.

U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan, the chair of the executive committee of the Judicial Conference, told reporters following the body's Tuesday meeting that the Supreme Court decision has meant booming caseloads for a handful of federal judges.

Criminal cases pending per judge as of June 30 jumped to 277 from 76 a year earlier in the Eastern District of Oklahoma. In the Northern District, they increased from 70 to 208, said Eagan, a Tulsa-based judge who sits in that district.

"We're going to need additional judges in Oklahoma to keep up with this workload," she said.

Legislation is currently pending in the U.S. Senate to expand the judiciary, including a bipartisan proposal to adopt the Judicial Conference's March recommendation for 77 new district court judges.

The judiciary is also seeking two new appellate judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tuesday's proposal emerged from the 26-member Judicial Conference's biannual meeting, its third conducted virtually during the pandemic.

Invited speakers at the closed-door meeting included U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and several members of the U.S. House of Representatives' and Senate's Judiciary Committees. Eagan declined to detail what they discussed.

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