On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, Governor Stitt filed a motion to intervene in Muscogee Creek Nation v. City of Tulsa.

The Creek Nation brought a lawsuit against the City of Tulsa for enforcing the municipal laws, namely traffic laws, against tribal members. The lawsuit challenges the City of Tulsa’s police powers, which flow directly from the State of Oklahoma. Because neither party represents the State’s interests in the lawsuit, the Governor seeks to intervene to protect the State’s interests and properly represent the City of Tulsa, and more broadly, the State of Oklahoma.

The motion reads, in part, “This lawsuit squarely challenges the State and its political subdivisions’ sovereign right to exercise criminal jurisdiction within the State’s territory. The State has a direct and substantial interest in protecting its sovereign right to exercise ordinary police powers through prosecution of criminal offenses. As the Supreme Court has long recognized: “No one questions that States possess ‘a legitimate interest in the continued enforce[ment] of [their] own statutes.’”… The absence of the State here will, as a practical matter, impair or impede the State’s sovereign interest in enforcing its laws, using its police powers, and protecting its citizens, as well as the Governor’s particular interest in upholding the laws of the State.”

The Oklahoma Supreme Court recently confirmed that the Governor of the State of Oklahoma has “constitutionally-granted Supreme Executive Power and statutorily granted authority which gives him the right to represent the State and choose his counsel in defense of the action.”

Read the full motion here.