Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond recently asked state legislators to allow him to take over Governor Kevin Stitt’s 3-year legal battle over tribal gaming compacts Stitt signed with four small tribes.
In a June 16 letter to Republican lawmakers, noting that Stitt hired outside counsel to litigate the matter, Drummond wrote he wants to “end the continued waste of state resources on this matter. The state of Oklahoma has been embroiled in legal controversy for over three years following Governor J. Kevin Stitt’s unilateral action of negotiating illegal tribal compacts with four tribal communities in Oklahoma.
“As determined by our Supreme Court, Governor Stitt’s actions are in violation of Oklahoma law, and his attempts to seek federal bureaucratic authorization of those compacts resulted in a federal lawsuit which Governor Stitt is currently defending in his official capacity (using the services of several Washington, D.C. and New York City law firms).”
The situation dates back to Stitt signing new compacts with the Otoe-Missouria Tribe, Comanche Nation, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians and Kialegee Tribal Town to pressure the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole tribes into renegotiating their own compacts.
The Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Citizen Potawatomi tribal nations filed a federal lawsuit against Stitt and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), claiming Stitt violated the law by signing the four compacts and the federal government, through inaction, should not have let those compacts take effect.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled in favor of legislative leaders who sued Stitt over the new compacts, stating they were invalid since Stitt exceeded his authority by signing them without legislative approval.
In response to Drummond, Stitt spokeswoman Abegail Cave said the governor’s office retained only one Washington, D.C., law firm, since the case is pending before the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia.
Cave added state law supports Stitt’s authority to negotiate the new compacts.
She said, “The attorney general has no legal right to represent the governor in this matter. Gentner Drummond is not Kevin Stitt’s lawyer. Attorney General Drummond’s job is to protect the people of Oklahoma, but if history is any indication, he will likely put the state’s interests aside and allow the people of Oklahoma and the smaller tribes to be steamrolled by the larger ones who have a stranglehold on the gaming market.”
House Speaker Charles McCall said Drummond does have the authority to intervene in the tribal gaming lawsuit. In a June 26 letter to Drummond, McCall wrote, “If you, as the attorney general, deem it in the best interest of the state of Oklahoma for you to intercede in this litigation then I and the citizens would expect you to do so, and the House will not interfere with that decision.”
A spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat said the Senate GOP caucus currently is reviewing Drummond’s letter.
