I've now finished reading Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta. I'll say this much: I found Justice Gorsuch's dissent here far more persuasive than I found his majority opinion in McGirt. Yet, if McGirt had come out the other way, there probably would have been no need for the Court to decide Castro-Huerta. With that observation out of the way, my primary reaction to this case is woah: Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch reside in different realms. If you read the majority opinion, you see a fairly straightforward case that applies longstanding federal law. If you read the dissent, five unelected Judges have revived the Trail of Tears. Truly, the rhetoric in this case is startling.
Here is how Justice Kavanaugh describes the dissent:
From start to finish, the dissent employs extraordinary rhetoric in articulating its deeply held policy views about what Indian law should be.
