Supreme Court Ruling in Michigan Case Could Help Anti-Casino Group

The Stop the Casino 101 Coalition (STC101) is hailing today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a Michigan man, David Patchak, to move ahead with his lawsuit against an Indian band's right to operate a casino on land held in trust for the tribe by the federal government.

The Court ruled by an 8-1 vote, with Justice Sonya Sotomayor being the only justice in dissent.

Meanwhile, the Press Democrat reports that groundbreaking on the Rohnert Park Casino project was due to being today, although questions remained whether "the work was starting ahead of required approvals," such as county-tribe mitigation negotiations.

The Supreme Court's ruling has no direct bearing on the legal status of the property or project, but it does allow a citizen to contest the protection that federal trust can give to private or state-owned land.

In order for Indians to operate casinos in states where gaming is illegal, such as Michigan and California, they must ask the federal government to hold land they have purchased in trust, thereby removing it from state law jurisdiction.

"Native American tribes' sovereign immunity over their land comes from the fact that the federal government holds title to the lands, which makes the tribes subject only to federal law," said Pastor Chip Worthington, founder of Stop the Casino 101 Coalition in a statement.

"When you remove that federal protection, the land comes under state law once again, and in states like Michigan and here in California, Class III casinos are illegal on state-governed land."

Patchak's suit was filed to strip the federal government of its title for land held in trust by a North American tribe, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians. The Pottawatomi have already built the Gun Lake Casino on the property; Gun Lake was built and is managed by Station Casinos, the same company that is behind Rohnert Park's Graton Rancheria Casino.

Patchak argued that the Secretary of the Interior could not acquire into trust property that the Pottawatomi Band intended to use for “gaming purposes” because the Band was not a federally recognized tribe when the Indian Reorganization Act was enacted in 1934.

Technically the only thing settled by the Supreme Court was Patchak's right to sue over the issue of federal trust, not a settlement of the suit itself.

Sonoma County residents living near the Graton Rancheria casino brought a lawsuit against the project similar to Patchak in federal court in 2008, but the court dismissed it as being "premature"

"There are significant issues in the Graton Rancheria fee to trust that can be challenged in court," said Pastor Worthington. "We can stop the Graton Rancheria casino site of its federal trust protection, which means the casino cannot open under both state and federal law."

"Patchak is the key to stop the casino," he said.

STC101 is one of 25 California community groups that joined Patchak as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the case.

Patch is awaiting a response from the Chairman ' office at the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.