Government asks for extension in Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe lawsuit

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Government asks for extension in Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe lawsuit

By Tanner Stening
Posted Nov 27, 2018

The U.S. Department of the Interior has asked for a 31-day extension on a deadline to respond to a lawsuit by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe challenging the federal agency’s Sept. 7 decision that threatens the tribe’s reservation.

Filled on Nov. 20, the request notes that the Interior leadership and “other agency personnel need additional time to help prepare and review” a response to the lawsuit, according to the court filing, which is signed by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jean Williams of the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and trial attorney Sara Costello.

Tribal attorneys filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sept. 27 challenging an Interior Department ruling earlier that month that reversed an Obama-era decision to secure 321 acres of tribal land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust. The latest determination by the department found the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction in 1934 — the year the Indian Reorganization Act was passed. The tribe has plans to build a $1 billion casino on the land in Taunton. Neighbors of the proposed casino had sued to overturn the earlier decision and a judge found in their favor, sending it back to the Interior Department.

The tribe’s lawsuit against Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his department alleges the agency “failed to apply established law” by “contorting relevant facts and ignoring others to engineer a negative decision” with respect to the tribe’s land.

The suit alleges that the department’s decision “indefensibly reverses course” from the administrative decisions it has made for other tribes in regard to federal jurisdiction and “badly ignores” the case law interpreting what that phrase means, court documents say.

The government’s court filing occurred days after the tribe marched in Washington, D.C., from the National Museum of the American Indian to the U.S. Capitol to protest the Interior Department’s September ruling.

At the same time, neighbors of the proposed casino who are suing the agency in a separate case over its 2015 decision to take land into trust for the tribe recently requested that the tribe withdraw its appeal of the case or be required to file opening briefs.

In a request filed Oct. 9 with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, attorney David Tennant argued the tribe should not be permitted another stay in the appeal process because it opted to “take its chances” with a remanded review of the eligibility of its trust lands, according to court documents.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181127/government-asks-for-extension-in-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-lawsuit

Big victories against predatory gambling at the ballot box on Election Day Tuesday

There were some major victories against predatory gambling at the ballot box on Election Day Tuesday:

1) Florida citizens voted overwhelmingly to put the power to decide gambling expansion in the hands of the people instead of the Legislature. The state group No Casinos Florida organized the referendum and led the fight to pass it.

2) The people of Florida also voted to abolish greyhound dog racing after years of work by the greyhound protection organization Grey2K.

3) Idaho voters rejected the deceptive proposal to legalize slot machines at Idaho race tracks. Our chapter Stop Predatory Gambling Idaho played a key role in educating citizens about the issue.

4) In a history-making referendum, an Illinois community that introduced video gambling reversed that policy through a binding ballot question. Voters in Forest Park, Illinois shut down video gambling machines in their community.

There were also two efforts that did not go our way on Tuesday. In Arkansas, out-of-state gambling interests spent millions of dollars to initiate a referendum to pass regional casinos and then saturate the state with campaign advertising. And in Louisiana, sports gambling operators spent more than $1 million to lure voters in some state parishes to support "daily fantasy sports" gambling. It was a blatantly deceitful attempt to force online gambling into people's homes by disguising it as something harmless.  

I'm so proud to be a part of this just and important fight with you to improve the lives of the American people with compassion and fairness. Thank you!

Best,

Les Bernal
National Director
Stop Predatory Gambling

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Stop Predatory Gambling

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- A 501c3 non-profit based in Washington, DC, we are a national government reform network of individuals and organizations from across the U.S.

- We believe in improving the lives of the American people with compassion and fairness, freeing us from the lower standard of living, exploitation, and fraud that commercialized gambling spreads.

- We are one of the most diverse organizations in the United States, one in which conservatives and progressives work side-by-side with with a common national purpose.

What We Stand For —

- We believe everyone should have a fair opportunity to get ahead and improve their economic standing.

- We believe every person’s life has worth and that no one is expendable.

- We believe that a good society depends on the values of honesty, concern for others, mutual trust, self-discipline, sacrifice, and a work ethic that connects effort and reward.

- We believe no government body should depend on predatory gambling to fund its activities.

If you share our beliefs, please help sustain our work by making a tax-deductible, financial gift today of $10 or more.