The U.S. Supreme Court has set oral arguments in Patchak v. Zinke for November 7. The justices will hear from the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe, and the Trump administration. Attorneys for each side received permission to present a “divided argument.”
The case questions the constitutionality of whether a federal statute depriving an American the right to pursue a pending lawsuit violates the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
The federal government took into trust land in Wayland, Michigan for the Gun Lake Tribe, which opened the Gun Lake Casino on the land. David Patchak, who lives near the casino, claimed its construction and operation caused him injury. He brought a lawsuit against the U.S. government which ended up in the Supreme Court over the issue of whether Patchak had standing to sue. The high court said he did. Subsequently former President Barack Obama signed the 2014 Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act, stating any legal action regarding the tribe’s casino site “shall not be filed or maintained in a federal court and shall promptly be dismissed.”
The Supreme Court will determine if the government can direct the courts to dismiss pending lawsuits by enacting new statutes in this way, or if such an action is unconstitutional. Lower courts have upheld the law.
In a brief submitted to the court, the National Congress of American Indians, the largest inter-tribal organization, said, “Land held in trust by the United States for the benefit of Indian tribes plays a critical role in tribal self-government and economic development. Trust lands support all aspects of tribal life, from the provision of government and health care services to the protection of natural resources to energy development.”
