U.S. Supreme Court Hands Down Two Important Indian Law Decisions

On Monday, June 18, the U.S. Supreme Court (Court) decided the only two Indian law cases on its 2011-12 term docket. The Ramah Chapter decision represents a victory for Indian country while the Patchak decision is a major setback. The two decisions are summarized below. The Court will end its current term next week and recess until October.

The Patchak Decision Will Encourage Challenges to Fee-to-Trust Acquisitions

In Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi Indians v. Patchak the Court held that a private landowner complaining of potential adverse impacts from a proposed tribal gaming enterprise could sue to challenge a decision by the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to acquire the site of the enterprise in trust for the tribe. It made no difference, the Court ruled, that the Secretary had already acquired the property and that federal law barred challenges to the government's title. Justice Sotomayor was the sole dissenter in the Court's 8-1 ruling.

The Secretary, pursuant to his authority under the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA), had approved a application to acquire 147 acres of fee land in Wayland Township, Michigan, in trust for the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Potawatomi Indians (Tribe) in 2009 for gaming purposes. Patchak, a neighboring landowner, had sued under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), asserting standing based on alleged adverse impacts on his property from gaming. Patchak challenged the Secretary's authority to acquire the land on the ground that the Tribe was not under federal jurisdiction as of June 18, 1934, the date the IRA was enacted, as required pursuant to the Court's 2009 decision in Carcieri v. Salazar. While the suit was pending, the government took title to the land in trust for the Tribe. The district court then dismissed under the Quiet Title Act (QTA), which waives the immunity of the United States to permit suits challenging the government's title but explicitly excludes suits challenging title to Indian lands. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and reinstated Patchak's suit, holding that the QTA exclusion did not apply because Patchak was not asserting his own title in the land. On Monday, the Court affirmed:

"Patchak's lawsuit therefore lacks a defining feature of a QTA action. He is not trying to disguise a QTA suit as an APA action to circumvent the QTA's "Indian lands" exception. Rather, he is not bringing a QTA suit at all. He asserts merely that the Secretary's decision...