On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Sara Hill as a federal judge in Oklahoma, with a 52-14 majority representing the chamber’s general approval of Hill. Hill’s approval, however, has not come without its share of criticism, most notably from Oklahoma’s governor, Kevin Stitt.

Hill was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in 1977, where she quickly grew immersed in the Cherokee Nation, which she went on to serve for three decades. She began her professional career as a prosecutor and Deputy Attorney General in the Cherokee Nation, before also taking on the role of Special Assistant United States Attorney. As a Special AUSA, Hill was given the opportunity and power to prosecute federal criminal cases which occurred in Native American land. Then, in 2015, Hill was selected to be the Cherokee Nation’s first Secretary of Natural Resources; four years later, she received her highest position as the Attorney General of the Cherokee Nation.

While serving as Attorney General, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in the case of McGirt v. Oklahoma. The case, which was decided in July 2020, ruled that Native Americans who committed crimes in Indian land would be tried in a tribal or federal court, as opposed to the standard state court trial. One of the key discussions which surrounded the ruling was the balance of power which would exist between Oklahoma and the Indian Nation, a new equilibrium which severely expanded Hill’s jurisdiction. To put some perspective on this expansion, The Cherokee Nation had litigated 100 criminal cases in the year before McGirt, a number which increased to 3,700 in the year following the ruling. In this time, it was Hill who orchestrated an exponential growth in the Nation’s criminal division to account for their increase in workload.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling on Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta limited the scope of McGirt, the initial ruling had left its impression on Cherokee Nation law and Hill’s career. Despite a crime increase of about 70% in the year following McGirt, Hill became a staunch supporter of the ruling and a critic of Castro-Huerta. Her unwavering support of a somewhat unsuccessful decision brought about criticism, in particular from Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt. Earlier this month, he accused Hill of "spen[ding] a great deal of time and resources actively suing the State of Oklahoma in an effort to overturn 116 years of Statehood and working to strip the state of [their] authority to enforce laws." 

Despite the backlash she has received for her stance on the pair of Supreme Court rulings, the U.S. Senate has overwhelmingly accepted her nomination to be a federal judge in Oklahoma, making her the state’s first ever Native American woman to serve in the position.