From the Detroit Free Press:
Among John Engler’s last acts as governor of Michigan — on Dec. 30, 2002, to be precise — was approving a land claim settlement with two Upper Peninsula Indian tribes that gave them rights to property for two separate casinos in southeast Michigan. The settlement was long overdue, but the terms Engler allowed were way too generous to the tribes.
Here is a short article on “Reservation Shopping,” including a short discussion on the new rules from Interior on taking land into trust for gaming purposes — Reservation Shopping
SCOTUSBlog lists Carcieri v. Kempthorne as a petition to watch for the Feb. 22 conference.
There are some warning signs, notably the amicus brief filed by numerous states in support of Rhode Island’s petition. See Gregory A. Caldiera & John R. Wright, Organized Interests and Agenda Setting in the U.S. Supreme Court, 82 American Political Science Review 1109, 1122 (1988 ) (“[A]micus curiae briefs filed in support of the petition for certiorari increase the estimated probability that the Supreme Court will grant by a magnitude of .5 or .6, depending upon the characteristics of a particular case.”).
As I argued earlier, however, (1) there is no circuit split; and (2) the issue may turn on the particular import of the Rhode Island Indian Claims Settlement Act, meaning that the outcome could have little or no import nationally. Moreover, the United States is in opposition, so these factors may be sufficient to persuade the Court to let this one percolate.
As reported earlier, here is the amendment to the Bay Mills Indian Community settlement agreement executed last November.
From the Detroit Free Press:
During his testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee, Kilpatrick seemed at ease, defending his city from incursions he said no one should doubt would hurt Detroit’s three casinos.
“We’re pitting Port Huron against Romulus against Detroit,” he told the committee, with his mother, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, looking on.
From the NYTs:
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made exactly the right call when he recently denied permission to 11 Indian tribes around the country to acquire more land in order to build casinos.
Last week, the Department of Interior rejected fee-to-trust applications for eleven tribes . Matthew has linked to the rejection letters elsewhere on this site. In rejecting these applications, the DoI has changed the method by which it will review all fee-to-trust applications under 25 C.F.R. Part 151. On January 3rd, Assistant Secretary of Interior Carl Artman , issued a letter to the BIA’s Regional Directors that established that all future applications will be subjected to a “commutable distance” test. In other words, if a tribe seeks to have land placed into trust, even for non-gaming economic development purposes, it must be within a distance where tribal citizens on the existing reservation can reasonably commute to jobs at the site. This had previously not been the case.
Turtle Talk 