Oklahoma Federal Courts: Structure and Jurisdiction

Oklahoma has three federal judicial districts within the Tenth Circuit. This page records the statutory structure, the county boundaries of each district, and the Supreme Court decision that reshaped criminal jurisdiction in eastern Oklahoma.

Three districts

The district structure is set by 28 U.S.C. § 116:

Oklahoma is divided into three judicial districts to be known as the Northern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Oklahoma.

The Northern District comprises eleven counties:

(a) The Northern District comprises the counties of Craig, Creek, Delaware, Mayes, Nowata, Osage, Ottawa, Pawnee, Rogers, Tulsa, and Washington. Court for the Northern District shall be held at Bartlesville, Miami, Pawhuska, Tulsa, and Vinita.

The Eastern District comprises twenty-six counties:

(b) The Eastern District comprises the counties of Adair, Atoka, Bryan, Carter, Cherokee, Choctaw, Coal, Haskell, Hughes, Johnston, Latimer, Le Flore Love, McCurtain, McIntosh, Marshall, Murray, Muskogee, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Pittsburg, Pontotoc, Pushmataha, Seminole, Sequoyah, and Wagoner. Court for the Eastern District shall be held at Ada, Ardmore, Durant, Hugo, Muskogee, Okmulgee, Poteau, and S. McAlester.

The Western District comprises forty counties:

(c) The Western District comprises the counties of Alfalfa, Beaver, Beckham, Blaine, Caddo, Canadian, Cimarron, Cleveland, Comanche, Cotton, Custer, Dewey, Ellis, Garfield, Garvin, Grady, Grant, Greer, Harmon, Harper, Jackson, Jefferson, Kay, Kingfisher, Kiowa, Lincoln, Logan, McClain, Major, Noble, Oklahoma, Payne, Pottawatomie, Roger Mills, Stephens, Texas, Tillman, Washita, Woods, and Woodward. Court for the Western District shall be held at Chickasha, Enid, Guthrie, Lawton, Mangum, Oklahoma City, Pauls Valley, Ponca City, Shawnee, and Woodward.

Appeals to the Tenth Circuit

Appeals from all three Oklahoma districts go to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. 28 U.S.C. § 41 assigns Oklahoma to the Tenth Circuit:

Tenth Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming. Eleventh Alabama, Florida, Georgia.

McGirt and Indian country jurisdiction

In McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court held that the Creek reservation in eastern Oklahoma remains Indian country for purposes of federal criminal law. From the Court’s slip opinion:

Today we are asked whether the land these treaties promised remains an Indian reservation for purposes of federal criminal law. Because Congress has not said otherwise, we hold the government to its word

The CourtListener docket for the case preserves the opinion and subsequent filings:

For MCA purposes, land reserved for the Creek Nation since the 19th century remains “Indian country.” Pp. 3–42. (a) Congress established a reservation for the Creek Nation. An 1833 Treaty fixed borders for a “permanent home to the whole Creek Nation of Indians,” 7 Stat. 418, and promised that the United States would “grant a patent, in fee simple, to the Creek nation of Indians for the [assigned] land” to continue “so long as they shall exist as a nation, and continue to occupy the country hereb