Turtle Talk

Available here, on Mr. Hoffman’s website. here:

Hoffman petition

UPDATE: Incidentally, Hoffman’s attorney apparently is the same Paul Livingston who challenged the Santa Fe Indian Market all those years ago in Livingston v. Ewing, known to (according to an anonymous source) “rant[] in local right wingnut rags about abolishing Indian law.”

Lower court materials here. Local TV coverage here, via Pechanga.

Questions presented:

1. Whether the doctrine of tribal immunity properly bars claims that an Indian Casino cheated a non-Indian gambler by refusing to pay a slot machine jackpot?

2. Whether the “property damage” under the waiver of immunity in Section 8 of the Tribal Gaming Compact applies only to physical damage to property?

As you might suspect, I give this petition very little chance. I would doubt any response is necessary. There’s no split in authority and the case isn’t important on a national level. As for question 1, I am always suspicious of claims that Indian casinos have cheated gamblers because casinos LOVE IT when there’s a jackpot — it means that everyone and their brother is going to show up at that casino to replicate the magic. And question 2 is just patently frivolous.