Opinion ID: 170350
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Presumptive Acceptance of Cession of Concurrent Jurisdiction

Text: Fields further contends that, even if the United States was not categorically limited to exclusive jurisdiction, that was the only form of jurisdiction to which the presumption of acceptance applied. This argument is meritless. When the United States acquired the land in question, the case law (beginning with Fort Leavenworth in 1885) had established that (1) acceptance of ceded jurisdiction was presumed absent refusal and (2) jurisdiction obtained through cession could be less than exclusive. The natural, syllogistic conclusion is that acceptance of concurrent jurisdiction was presumed absent refusal, and Fields has not cited a single case holding otherwise. Fort Leavenworth itself applied the presumption to a cession of jurisdiction so qualified by the state that it prompted the Court to simultaneously recognize that states may cede less than exclusive jurisdiction. 114 U.S. at 528, 541, 5 S.Ct. 995.