The state of Massachusetts and the town of Aquinnah, on Martha’s Vineyard, have appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision that allows the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) to build a Class II bingo hall on the island, despite signing an agreement in the 1980s that it would not do so.
It is rare for the high court to agree to hear an appeal of an appeals court, but in light of the April ruling by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals that appears to be the only recourse for the state and the little town.
The appeals court ruled that the tribe has a right to build the casino because the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) adopted a year after the tribe signed the agreement in a land settlement that was ratified by Congress trumps that agreement.
The question the Supreme Court should address, say the petitioners is whether IGRA amounted to a repeal of the earlier Massachusetts Settlement Act, even though both were approved by the same Congress.
“And we think the answer is no,’’ Aquinnah town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport told the Vineyard Gazette. “If Congress wanted to repeal our act, they should have said so. They know how to say so and they did not do that.” The petitioners say the answer to this question could have wide-ranging effects on other agreements tribes have made with local governments all over the country.
The case dates back to 2013. The first round went to the town and the state when U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV ruled that IGRA did not trump the agreement. The 1st Circuit overturned Saylor’s ruling.
The U.S. Supreme Court hears about 1 percent of the nearly 8,000 petitions it receives each year.
