New Scholarship on Carcieri, Patchak, and the HEARTH Act Regulations

Noah Nehemiah Gillespie has published “Preserving Trust: Overruling Carcieri and Patchak While Respecting the Takings Clause” (PDF) in the George Washington Law Review.

Here is the abstract:

The potential benefit of new Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”) regulations for development on Native land has been overshadowed by two recent Supreme Court decisions—Carcieri v. Salazar and Match-E-Be-Nash-She- Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians v. Patchak—which cast doubt on the title to Native land and dramatically expand the rights of nearby owners to sue by challenging Native use of that land under the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Legislation that would amend the statutes the Court interpreted in Carcieri and Patchak could remedy these ill effects but would pose a new problem: the taking of a vested cause of action without just compensation.

This Essay proposes that Congress enact appropriate legislation that both overrules the Court’s interpretations of the relevant statutes and permits takings suits in place of suits under the APA, so that Native land remains securely under Native control. In addition, the BIA must harness the agency deference it deserves to set Native sovereignty at the center of federal Indian policy.

Jamul Action Committee v. Stevens: Carcieri-Style Challenge to Approval of Jamul Indian Village Gaming Management Contract

Here:

Complaint

Federal Court Grants Intervention to Ione Band Miwok in Challenge to Federal Trust Land Acquisition

Here are the materials so far in No Casino in Plymouth v. Jewell (E.D. Cal.):

35 Ione Band Motion for Intervention

39 NCIP Opposition

44 Ione Band Reply

46 DCT Order Granting Intervention

Complaints are here.

Interior Solicitor Letter to Mashpee Chairman

Here:

Tompkins-Letter-to-Cromwell-032013

 

Federal Court in “Cunundrum” Orders Interior to Refile Cowlitz Record of Decision and Dismisses Grand Ronde et al. Suit

Here is the order  and related materials in Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon v. Salazar (D. D.C.):

DCT Order

Clark County et al Motion for Summary J

Interior Opposition to Summary J Motion

USET Amicus

City of La Center Amicus

Interior Revised Cowlitz Initial Reservation Opinion

Interior Motion to Remand

Clark County et al Opposition to Remand Motion

Clark County et al Motion to Strike

Interior Opposition to Motion to Strike

Clark County et al Reply in Support of Motion to Strike

Excerpt from Judge Rothstein’s opinion:

Nor can the Federal Defendants supplement the administrative record with the 2012 Revised Initial Reservation Decision. It is black letter law that the record to be considered by this Court “consists of the administrative record compiled by the agency in advance of litigation, not any record thereafter constructed in the reviewing court.” AT&T Info. Sys. Inc. v. Gen. Servs. Admin., 810 F.2d 1233, 1236 (D.C. Cir. 1987) (emphasis added) (rejecting agency’s attempt to submit a litigation affidavit as a post hoc rationalization of the agency’s action); see also, Center for Auto Safety v. Federal Highway Admin., 956 F.2d 309, 314 (D.C. Cir. 1992) (rejecting agency’s rationale as post hoc rationalization not included in administrative record); Am. Textile Mfrs. Inst., Inc. v. Donovan, 452 U.S. 490, 539-40 (1981) (“[P]ost hoc rationalization of the agency or the parties to this litigation cannot serve as a sufficient predicate for agency action”). Accordingly, the Federal Defendants cannot “incorporate” a 2012 explanation into a 2010 ROD by characterizing it as a “Supplemental Record of Decision.”

However, the Court is now in a conundrum. The Court notes that Plaintiffs opposed the Federal Defendants’ motion to remand, yet remand is the relief that they sought on the initial reservation determination because the agency had failed to provide a “reasoned explanation for his decision.” The Secretary has now provided such a reasoned explanation. Plaintiffs again oppose remand and ask the Court to strike the Supplemental ROD. If the Court were to grant Plaintiffs’ request, the parties would be litigating the 2010 Initial Reservation Determination, a determination that has been withdrawn and superceded. The Court will not waste its or the parties’ resources on such a fruitless endeavor. See Spencer v. Kemna, 523 U.S. 1, 18 (1998) (“[Federal courts] are not in the business of pronouncing that past actions which have no demonstrable continuing effect were right or wrong”). The Court is also cognizant of the fact that the parties have been locked in this battle for nearly eleven years. (TR at 13.). However, the APA requires that the Federal Defendants conform to its dictates, disallowing amendments to a final decision once a case has been filed in district court. Accordingly, the Court will remand this action to the agency with instructions to rescind the 2010 ROD. Since this is a case where the agency has already reconsidered and revised its final decision and since the parties represent to the Court that the agency is not required to provide public notice under IGRA (which is the only portion of the 2010 ROD being supplemented), the Court will require the agency to issue a new decision of record within sixty (60) days of the date of this order, unless good cause is shown why it cannot do so. See Fulton v. FPC, 512 F.2d 947, 955 (D.C. Cir. 1975).

News coverage here.

Sen. Feinstein Letter re: Concerns about Interior’s New Policy on Trust Land Acquisition during Litigation

Here:

Sen. Feinstein Letter

Updated Documents in Enterprise Rancheria Trust Acquisition Case

Here are all of the materials now in the case consolidated as Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians of Colusa Indian Community v. Salazar (E.D. Cal.) (we posted preliminary materials here):

Complaint here.

DCT Order denying TRO

Colusa Motion for PI

George Forman Affidavit in Spport of TRO

Citizens Motion for TRO

UAIC Motion for TRO

Consolidated Federal Opposition

Enterprise Rancheria Opposition

Citizens Reply

Colusa Reply

UAIC Reply

Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community v. Salazar Denial of TRO and Additional Documents

Complaint here.

Enterprise denying TRO and Mandamus

Patchak is indistinguishable from the present case because no Plaintiff claims an interest in the Proposed Site, meaning that this is not a quiet title action and the QTA’s limitation on suits related to Indian lands does not apply. Patchak squarely addressed the supposedly irreparable harm that Plaintiffs complain of and indicated that federal district courts do have  the power to strip the federal government of title to land taken  into trust for an Indian tribe under the APA so long as the claimant does not assert an interest in the land. In this case, Plaintiffs only seek to divest the government of its title. They do not assert an interest in the Proposed Site. Plaintiffs have    therefore not shown that the mere act of transferring the  Proposed Site into trust on February 1, 2013 constitutes   irreparable harm, and a TRO is therefore inappropriate.

Enterprise Docket Sheet 01302013
US Opposition – Enterprise

Federal Court Rejects Carcieri/NEPA/Other Challenges to North Fork Rancheria Trust Acquisition

Here are the materials in Stand Up for California! v. Dept. of Interior (D. D.C.):

Memorandum Opinion

Interior Motion to Change Venue

Stand Up Motion pt 1

Stand Up Motion pt 2

Stand Up Motion pt 3

Picayune Rancheria Memorandum

Interior Response to Picayune Memorandum

Interior Response

North Fork Rancheria Opposition

Picayune Reply

Stand Up Reply

Complaint Challenging Trust Acquisition for Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians

Here is the complaint in Citizens for a Better Way v. DOI (D. D.C.):

Citizens for a Better Way Complaint

From the complaint:

This dispute centers on the November 21, 2012, decision of the Department of the Interior (“DOI”), through Secretary Kenneth Salazar (“Secretary”), to acquire a 40-acre parcel of land located near rural Wheatland, California (“Yuba Site”) in trust on behalf of group of Indians alleged to be the Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California (“Enterprise”) and the underlying September 2011 determination approving off-reservation gaming on the Site. The purpose of the acquisition is to allow Enterprise to develop an off-reservation casino-resort with 1,700 slot machines and 170-room hotel in the middle of a farming community in Yuba County. The Secretary published notice of the trust decision in the Federal Register on December 3, 2012. 77 Fed. Reg. 71,612-01 (Dec. 3, 2012). The Secretary did not publish notice of the underlying gaming determination, made in September 2011, in the Federal Register.