A federal judge has ruled on one aspect of a lawsuit that will determine whether the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is allowed to build a Class II casino on its reservation in the Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts town of Aquinnah.
Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV ruled last week that the tribe IS bound by an agreement that it knowingly made with the state in a land settlement where it acquired the land in question. It knowingly waived its sovereign immunity and ability to put a casino on tribal land in 1983 and subjected itself to state and local laws at the same time.
However, the question now to be settled is whether the adoption in 1988 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) trumped that agreement, which would mean that the tribe could build the casino anyway.
Judge Saylor said he would take up that question of the law in the next phase of the trial.
The tribe unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a gaming compact with former Governor Deval Patrick after the Bay State adopted the gaming expansion law of 2011. He refused to negotiate, saying that the tribe signed away its rights to a casino in 1987. He said the tribe could compete for one of the licenses being offered by the state, but could not legally build a tribal casino.
The tribe acted on a 2013 opinion by the National Indian Gaming Commission and began to convert a small, unfinished community building into a Class II casino. Patrick sued to stop that from happening.
Saylor relied extensively on a previous decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which in 2004 held that state and local laws bound the tribe. Since that action did not involve a casino, that left open the question of whether IGRA trumped state law.
Both the tribe and the state and community suing to stop its casino found something to like about the ruling.
The state and community of Aquinnah were gratified that the court upheld the agreement that the tribe signed. The tribe said it was pleased that IGRA could make all that moot.
Cheryl Andrews Maltais, chairman of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Gaming Corporation, said in a statement, “The Aquinnah Wampanoag Gaming Corporation (AWGC) is extremely pleased with Friday’s order by U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor, which properly frames the lawsuit between the tribe and the Commonwealth as a matter of federal law despite the Commonwealth’s assertion to the contrary.”
