Judge denies government request for stay in Cape tribe’s lawsuit

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Judge denies government request for stay in Cape tribe’s lawsuit

By Tanner Stening
Posted Jan 2, 2019

A federal judge denied the U.S. Department of the Interior’s motion to suspend proceedings in a lawsuit brought in September by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, which is challenging the federal agency’s Sept. 7 decision on its trust land eligibility.

In light of the partial government shutdown, Interior Department attorneys requested a stay for officials to “answer or respond” to the tribe’s complaint until Congress passes a funding measure, saying that employees of the federal agency, as well as the Department of Justice, are prohibited from working except in “very limited circumstances,” according to the latest court filings.

Those circumstances include “emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,” attorneys wrote. The request to stay, filed Dec. 28, asked that the case be put on hold until appropriations were restored to the two departments.

Judge Rosemary M. Collyer denied the stay but granted another extension for the government to respond. The agency now has until Jan. 30 to respond to the lawsuit, according to a Jan. 2 order by Collyer.

Tribal attorneys filed the complaint Sept. 27 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the Interior Department’s ruling earlier that month reversing an Obama-era decision to secure 321 acres of tribal land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust for the tribe.

That determination by President Donald Trump’s administration 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 2015 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.

Zinke left his post Wednesday after announcing his resignation in December amid multiple investigations into alleged ethics violations. He is being replaced by Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, who will serve as acting secretary.

The Department of Justice has asked for similar action in other cases with mixed results, including several high profile lawsuits against the Trump administration.

In some of the cases, judges have issued stays pending a resolution of the government shutdown while in others judges have ordered that litigation proceed without disruption.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190102/judge-denies-government-request-for-stay-in-cape-tribes-lawsuit