Oklahoma tribal citizen seeks Supreme Court review of state income tax dispute

The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to determine whether certain Native Americans in Oklahoma are exempt from state income taxes under a previous high court ruling.

The petition, filed in late September by Alicia Stroble, a citizen of the federally recognized Muscogee (Creek) Nation who lived and worked on the reservation, comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court in July ruled against her challenge, which hinged on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in McGirt vs Oklahoma.

In a 6-3 decision, the state court said it was not empowered to apply McGirt to state taxation.

In McGirt, the court affirmed about 42% of Oklahoma as tribal reservation land for criminal law purposes.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission has said thousands of taxpayers claimed exemptions from the state’s income tax in the wake of McGirt and that tax exemption for tribal members would result in “tens of millions of dollars in tax refunds and deprive the state of billions more in future taxes.”

Stroble’s petition contends that the U.S. Supreme Court “has repeatedly held that, absent congressional approval, states categorically may not tax the income of Indians who live and work within their Tribes’ Indian country.”