U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who last spring recommended that the Bureau of Indian Affairs insert a section into its proposed revisions to federal rules for recognizing Indian tribes that would have in some cases given a third party veto to that recognition has changed his mind.
Now the senator, who is the former attorney general of Connecticut, says that his proposal, which has been included in the proposed revisions, would violate the U.S. Constitution.
Under the provision that Blumenthal insisted be included, a third party that was involved in litigation against a tribe that was previously denied recognition and is reapplying under the revised rules, would be able to prevent the recognition a second time.
According to Blumenthal, “I’ve argued, and so have other parties, that the third party veto raises very severe constitutional questions.”
Last year when the provision was included, the senator commented, “I am pleased that the administration has been responsive to our concerns about giving groups a second chance of recognition when they failed the criteria the first time.”
Because of his fears that the provision would not pass constitutional muster, Blumenthal has requested that the BIA abandon revising the rules altogether, calling them “illegal and extremely unwise,” in a quote to the Connecticut Mirror. The revised rules could be released sometime this spring.
As attorney general Blumenthal fought federal recognition of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation (STN), the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation (EPTN) and the Golden Hill Paugussett Indians (GHP) in order to prevent them from opening casinos as the Mohegans and Mashantucket Pequots did nearly 20 years ago. The two tribes operate the Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos. Blumenthal was also part of a coalition of attorneys general who opposed efforts of the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s efforts to put land into trust that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 Carcieri v. Salazar ruling.
Last week five members of Congress, including the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee called on the Interior Department to slow down its process for making the revisions official government policy.
