Opinion ID: 170350
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Oklahoma's Cession of General Concurrent Jurisdiction

Text: Oklahoma consented to federal acquisition of its land for the creation and expansion of national forests in 1925, through legislation that also specified both the territorial jurisdiction retained by the State and the territorial jurisdiction ceded to the federal government: That the consent of the State of Oklahoma be and is hereby given to the acquisition by the United States . . . of such lands in Oklahoma, as in the opinion of the Federal Government may be needed for the establishment, consolidation and extension of National Forests in the State; provided, that the State of Oklahoma shall retain a concurrent jurisdiction with the United States in and over the lands so acquired, so far that civil process in all cases, and such criminal process as may issue under the authority of the State of Oklahoma against any person charged with the commission of any crime without or within said jurisdiction, may be executed thereon in like manner as if this Act had not been passed. Power is hereby conferred upon Congress of the United States to pass such laws and to make or provide for the making of such rules and regulations of both a civil and criminal nature, and provide punishment therefor, as in its judgment may be necessary for the administration, control and protection of such lands as may be from time to time acquired by the United States under the provisions of this act. Act effective April 8, 1925 (Cession Act), ch. 42, §§ 1-2, 1925 Okla. Sess. Laws 61-62 (current version at Okla. State. tit. 80, §§ 6, 7) (emphasis added). The first section of the Cession Act indicates that the United States is being ceded full civil and criminal jurisdiction, with a concurrent jurisdiction reserved to the State. Fields argues, however, that the specific reference in the second section to the conferral of power on Congtess necessary for the administration, control, and protection of [the] lands, suggests that the ceded federal jurisdiction has a narrower range, relating only to the government's proprietary interests in the land, and thus is insufficient to support the imposition and enforcement of the criminal law under which he was prosecuted. As explained below, the only pertinent Oklahoma case construing the Cession Act supports the government's position that the Act cedes to the United States traditional concurrent jurisdiction. Fields' reading of the second section of the Act as imposing an enforceable substantive restriction on Congress's power, such that any legislation regarding national forest lands may be challenged for alleged deviation from the purposes of administration, control, and protection, ignores the modifying phrase  as in [Congress's] judgment may be necessary for [such purposes].
In State v. Cline, 322 P.2d 208 (Okla. Crim.App.1958), the Oklahoma Court of Criminal appeals considered state jurisdiction over crimes in a federal game reserve and in that regard addressed the meaning of the Cession Act. [2] The broadest holding in Cline, that the State of Oklahoma did not cede exclusive jurisdiction to the United States, id. at 216, is not a point of dispute here. What is contested is the nature of the non-exclusive jurisdiction ceded by the State and whether it encompasses enforcement of federal criminal law, particularly the murder offense specified in § 1111. In that regard, Fields makes much of Cline's statement that Oklahoma could continue to exercise jurisdiction not in conflict with the authority vested in the Secretary of Agriculture to punish violations of the wildlife regulations prescribed by him, 322 P.2d at 216. He contends this statement implies that the only jurisdiction ceded to the United States was for enforcement of federal regulations relating to proprietary interests inherent in the purposes for which state land was acquired  in Cline for the protection of wildlife, and here for the protection of forest land. We disagree. First, regardless whether a state has fully ceded or withheld territorial jurisdiction over land acquired by the United States, a state cannot enforce laws that are inconsistent with the federal uses for which the land was acquired. See James v. Dravo Contracting Co., 302 U.S. 134, 141-42, 147, 58 S.Ct. 208, 82 L.Ed. 155 (1937); Surplus Trading Co. v. Cook, 281 U.S. 647, 650, 50 S.Ct. 455, 74 L.Ed. 1091 (1930); United States v. Lewisburg Area Sch. Dist., 539 F.2d 301, 307 (3d Cir.1976). Hence, the quote from Cline does not necessarily involve a judgment one way or the other as to the nature of the territorial jurisdiction ceded to the United States; rather, it merely observes the overriding priority accorded federal property use. See also Kleppe v. New Mexico, 426 U.S. 529, 543, 96 S.Ct. 2285, 49 L.Ed.2d 34 (1976). Second, the context of the quote suggests that, far from denying any authority beyond the proprietary, Cline was acknowledging the presence of an unexercised reservoir of such authority. Before referring to the wildlife regulations, Cline noted that the United States does not now assert by statute anything more than proprietary control through [regulations issued by] the Secretary of Agriculture. 322 P.2d at 215 (emphasis added). Thus, the court's subsequent reference to the wildlife regulations reflected a recognition of the limited authority Congress had thus far chosen to exercise, implying that the potential authority ceded to it by the Cession Act reached beyond such proprietary interests. There is another statement in Cline that at first blush may appear to support Fields' position but which, on closer examination, supports federal jurisdiction. Cline expressed concern that if the State did not exercise jurisdiction and enforce its criminal law in the reserve, there was nothing to fill the gap: The area is without protection as to breaches of the peace . . ., unless Oklahoma is permitted to exercise the residuum of jurisdiction it retains over the area[.] Id. at 216. This statement appears to imply that federal territorial jurisdiction is indeed absent, as otherwise there would be no gapthe Assimilative Crimes Act (ACA), 18 U.S.C. § 13, would have transformed all state crimes into federal crimes enforceable in federal courts, see id. § 13(a). But that implication is undercut by the very next passage in Cline, which points out that [i]n James Stewart & Co. v. Sadrakula, [309 U.S. 94, 60 S.Ct. 431, 84 L.Ed. 596 (1940)], reference is made to certain Congressional acts adopting state statutes as a means of promoting uniformity in law enforcement affecting such areas as the refuge herein, but these acts were repealed [in 1948]. Cline, 322 P.2d at 216. The cited case discussed an earlier version of the ACA repealed in 1948 (though replaced by 18 U.S.C. § 13(a), evidently unnoticed by the Cline court). Sadrakula, 309 U.S. at 100-01, 60 S.Ct. 431. In short, Cline was concerned about a gap in criminal-law protections created by the repeal of the ACA, not by the absence of jurisdiction sufficient to impose and enforce criminal law through such federal legislation. This whole discussion suggests that the exercise of federal authority reflected in the ACA (based explicitly on territorial jurisdiction) had previously filled the criminal-law gap that the Cline court was concerned state law now had to fill. Once again, Cline indicates that federal criminal authority was absent in the game reserve because it had not been exercised, not because the federal government lacked jurisdiction to do so. In sum, Cline is fully consistent with, indeed lends substantial support to, our conclusion that the Cession Act cedes concurrent territorial jurisdiction to the United States. As discussed below, even if that jurisdiction is qualified by the Act's reference to the administration, control, and protection of forest lands, that qualification involves a matter committed solely to Congress's judgment and does not afford Fields any basis on which to challenge the jurisdictional validity of the murder statute under which he was prosecuted.
Fields' argument under the Cession Act ultimately rests on the premise that if federal jurisdiction were restricted to matters necessary for the administration, control, and protection of [national forest] lands, Cession Act, ch. 42, § 2, it would not encompass the murder offenses for which he has been prosecuted. He insists that this necessity clause does not authorize the general application of federal criminal law, and particularly federal offenses against persons rather than property, because the administration, control, and protection of national forests does not extend to anything beyond the land itself. While we do not necessarily share this cramped view of what is entailed in the proper administration, control, and protection of the national forests, we reject Fields' argument on the more fundamental basis that this condition on the exercise of ceded federal authority is, as the Cession Act provides, to be applied as appropriate in [ Congress's ] judgment, id. (emphasis added), not in the judgment of the parties or the court. Nearly identical necessity clauses were used in the state cession Acts at issue in the Raffield and Gabrion cases relied on by the government for its general position on concurrent jurisdiction. We find Gabrion 's treatment of the clause especially instructive. It did not analyze the meaning of the terms used in the clause to resolve whether, in its view, the function of the federal criminal law at issue fell within their scope. Rather, it held that the clause as a whole imposed only such constraint as Congress recognized, because the state did not (as Oklahoma here did not) reserve the authority to second guess the United States as to what prosecutions it might consider necessary for the administration, control and protection of the national forest lands. Gabrion, 2006 WL 2473978, at . Gabrion thus concludes, as we do, that the necessity clause does not require an independently confirmed administrative need before federal authority may be exercised, but only Congress's judgment that such a need warrants legislative action. We are aware of no contrary authority, nor has Fields suggested any, to undercut this plain reading of the language in the Cession Act. Consequently, we hold that Congress's extension of federal criminal authority to all lands over which the United States has concurrent jurisdiction in 18 U.S.C. § 7(3), and its explicit application of the murder statute to this same range of lands in 18 U.S.C. § 1111(b), did not exceed the territorial jurisdiction ceded by Oklahoma to the federal government over property acquired as national forest land.