Good for them! TL : DR - ICE wanted a former Big Lots distribution warehouse for their use, and the Choctaw Nation blocked them in every way. Good for them!
Except that condemnation at eminent domain is a thing.
Hope it holds.
Oklahoma has been nasty to the Native AMERICANs for many decades.
Not if it’s on tribal land! Eminent domain wouldn’t be impossible, but it would be a LOT more difficult.
Indeed. But all it would require would be a court friendly to the Government’s position and willing to overrule or limit tribal sovereignty. I wonder where they could find that?
I don’t remember all the ins and outs of invoking eminent domain over tribal lands, but the Bureau of Indian Affairs takes the lead for federally recognized tribes, IIRC. In the current administration, it might be a slam dunk.
Has condemnation of tribal properties by the U.S. court system been successful in the recent past?
It happens, although not often. It’s usually not a big deal, as far as the condemning agency is concerned. IME, however, I worked for a state agency that had condemnation authority, and it usually tried to avoid tribal lands not because it was more expensive that the tribes represented a greater challenge, but because working with the BIA was a huge disincentive. Federal bureaucracies can be miserable, and the BIA was known for dragging it’s feet. In the instant case, however, I would imagine significant pressure coming from the Executive Branch, which would probably work out a lot of those bureaucratic kinks.