Supreme Court Allows Challenge To Gun Lake Tribal Casino To Proceed Forward

On Monday, June 18, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in the closely watched Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians v. Patchak, 567 U.S. ___ (2012). The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (or "Gun Lake Band") in February 2011 opened Michigan's newest Indian casino. The casino is located in the western-Michigan town of Wayland. The Gun Lake Band's odyssey to open a tribal casino spanned over a decade and was wrought with several legal challenges.

The opening of the Gun Lake Casino seemingly represented the end of a series of lawsuits seeking to prevent the opening of the casino. Michigan Gambling Opposition was the first to bring suit. Michigan Gambling Opposition was an interest group organized to challenge the Gun Lake Band's initial efforts to have the U.S. Department of Interior ("DOI") take land into trust. After several years of litigation, federal courts ultimately rejected Michigan Gambling Opposition's challenge.

Shortly after the federal courts rejected the lawsuit brought by Michigan Gambling Opposition, David Patchak launched a second legal challenge. Patchak owns property close to the site of the Gun Lake Band's then proposed tribal casino, which has since opened at this site. Patchak did not allege that he had a legal interest in the land to be taken into trust. As the Supreme Court's ruling teaches us, this fact is significant. Rather, Patchak brought an action under the federal Administrative Procedure Act ("APA") asserting that the Indian Reorganization Act ("IRA") did not authorize the Department of Interior to take land into trust for the Gun Lake Band.

The significance of Patchak's argument lies with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U.S. 379 (2009). Carcieri held that the IRA requires an Indian tribe be "under federal jurisdiction" as of June 18, 1934, the date of enactment of the IRA, in order for the Secretary of the DOI to acquire property "for the purpose of providing land to Indians." Patchak relied on the APA to derive standing to bring his lawsuit. Patchak also relied on the APA for a waiver of sovereign immunity. The remedy Patchak sought is the issuance of an injunction prohibiting the DOI from taking the Gun Lake Band land into trust. The basis for the injunction, in Patchak's opinion, is that the requirements of the IRA cannot be satisfied.

The lower courts never reached the merits of Patchak's claims. The legal fight, instead, focused...

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