gaming

Congressional Vote Today on BMIC and Sault Tribe Gaming Bills

Kate Fort

From The Hill:

Pelosi to grant vote on Indian gaming bill benefiting Rep. Dingell’s district

By Susan Crabtree
Posted: 06/24/08 07:08 PM [ET]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is giving Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) a full House vote Wednesday on a nettlesome Indian gaming bill he’s been pushing for years as a surefire way to help out his cash-strapped district.

Dingell and his allies tried — albeit unsuccessfully — to insert it into various legislative vehicles despite an onslaught of complaints from high-profile opponents and others, such as convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who were stalwartly against congressional intervention in the issue.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), then the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs panel investigating Abramoff’s Indian gambling lobbying scandal, was infuriated by an effort to parachute the language into an early version of the 2005 highway bill. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), at Dingell’s urging, had placed the language deep within the massive transportation measure as early as 2003.

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Chairman Payment’s Rejoinder to Rep. Conyers

Kate Fort

From the Freep:

Tribal land plan is fair deal for all of state

June 25, 2008

With Michigan’s unemployment rate continuing to lead the nation, we are disappointed that a congressman from Detroit opposes legislation that would create more than 6,000 good union jobs for his city, county and state (“No special deals for tribal casinos,” June 24).Even more disappointing, U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ letter included inaccurate information about the legislation.

The legislation (HR4115 and HR2176) would create a settlement that compensates the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and Bay Mills Indian Community for lands stolen from our ancestors more than 120 years ago.

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Conyers, Freep op-ed “No Special Deals for Tribal Casinos”

trentcrable

John Conyers in today’s Freep:

“I would like to add a few points concerning the upcoming vote in Congress on legalizing off-reservation casinos in Romulus and Port Huron (“Legislators, tribes divided over casinos; At issue: Romulus, Port Huron sites,” June 22):

The validity of the land claims the bills purport to “settle” is questionable. The Bay Mills Indian Community filed its claim in federal and Michigan courts, and lost in both. The Sault Ste. Marie tribe has never bothered to pursue the established legal paths available for settling such claims.

The settlements are for land hundreds of miles from the tribes’ reservations. Under the established procedures for considering permitting a tribe to build an off-reservation casino, distance from the reservation is a major factor weighing against approval, because the detriment to the tribe is more likely to outweigh any benefits.

Other important factors under the established procedure are the potential environmental problems and the potential detrimental effects on the surrounding community. The deals the bills cut for the Bay Mills and Sault Ste. Marie tribes would circumvent every part of the careful consideration that is usually required.

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Freep on BMIC and Sault Tribe Gaming Bills

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Detroit Free Press:

A fight over proposed American Indian casinos in Romulus and Port Huron may reach the floor of Congress this week, where two Michigan political heavyweights find themselves on opposite sides of the issue.

The proposals — which could be on the floor as early as Wednesday — have a fair shot at passing, despite loud objections from Detroit politicians who fear new casinos could cut into the take of the city’s three gaming emporiums and undercut investments their owners have made.

Even if the House approves, however, the proposals face a big obstacle in the Senate — Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who is said to be opposed to the legislation that has been simmering in Washington for at least six years.

The difference now is the strong support for the Romulus casino from Rep. John Dingell, a Dearborn Democrat who is the longest-serving active member of the House and chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.

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BMIC & Sault Tribe Gaming Bill Heads to House Floor

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Never mind the Senate, this one’s going to be ugly. I wonder how many times Abramoff’s name gets mentioned. Here’s the report from The Hill:

House Democratic leaders have brokered a deal to bring to the floor next week a contentious Indian gaming bill that has pitted two powerful Democratic committee chairmen against one another.

For months, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) have been clashing over two bills that would settle tribal land disputes and allow two new Indian casinos to be built near Detroit. Next week, they will settle their differences on the House floor.

The deal would allow the two tribal land dispute bills that Dingell supports to be voted on on the floor, but would also give Conyers an amendment, according to sources tracking the measures. The amendment apparently would direct the Department of Justice (DoJ) and possibly the Department of the Interior to review the land claims — a difficult and likely unsuccessful process Dingell and other supporters have attempted to avoid by seeking congressional approval of the legislation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders are in a politically difficult spot.

They have decided to allot precious floor time for measures that will pave the way for Indian casinos during the first election year after the fall of Jack Abramoff, whose lobbying practices involving tribes and gambling helped propel Democrats into power in 2006.

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En Banc Petition in MichGO v. Kempthorne

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

We don’t have the petition yet, but here’s the D.C. Circuit clerk’s order and the article from ICT:

WASHINGTON – In what will likely be the last of its many legal challenges, an anti-Indian casino group has asked a federal appeals court to determine if a law that has been restoring swindled and expropriated indigenous land to Indians for almost 75 years is constitutional.

Michigan Gambling Opposition, or MichGO, petitioned the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia May 10 for an en banc court rehearing of its 2 – 1 panel decision to allow the Interior Department to take 147 acres of land into trust for the Gun Lake Tribe’s proposed casino.

MichGO wants the full nine-judge court to determine if the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 violates the nondelegation doctrine by unconstitutionally allowing the Interior secretary to acquire or take into trust land for Indians.

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Butte County v. Hogen – Mechoopda Permissive Intervention

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

A federal magistrate allowed the Mechoopda Tribe to intervene in a case challenging their compact approval by the NIGC, over the objections of Butte County. Here is the opinion.

Barona Band v. Yee — CA9 Tax Case

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Indianz reports the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in Barona Band v. Yee. Here are the briefs:

barona-band-opening-brief

yee-response-brief

barona-band-reply-brief

Odawa Casino Revenue Sharing Numbers

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

For the article, see here. An excerpt:

When handing out the latest community proceeds from local Indian gaming, the Emmet County Local Revenue Sharing Board had about $250,000 more to work with than in the previous round.

This spring, the board used a new, more specific framework to allocate money, one which put the largest funding awards in categories such as infrastructure and education.

Local governments appoint the three-member board to allocate gaming dollars twice a year. Under its gaming compact with Michigan, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians must make 2 percent of electronic gaming receipts from its casino available to the community.

The latest payout — about $840,000 — included gaming receipts from July-December 2007, up from $590,000 in the previous round. In June 2007, the tribe opened the Odawa Casino Resort to replace its smaller Victories Casino.

Oregon Court of Appeals Revives Suit on Oregon Gaming Compacts

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

The case is Dewberry v. Kulongowski, and it involves my favorite court rule, the indispensable party!

From the opinion:

Relators appeal from a judgment dismissing their petition for an alternative writ of mandamus. They argue that the trial court erred in concluding that they failed to establish that they do not have a “plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law,” ORS 34.110, and that the trial court misapplied ORCP 29 and ORS 28.110 in the present proceeding. As explained below, we agree with relators in certain respects, albeit at some points for reasons not advanced by the parties, and conclude that relators did not have a “plain, speedy and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law,” ORS 34.110, in the form of a declaratory judgment action. Accordingly, we reverse and remand.