With the Supreme Court leaving it high and dry, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas has one recourse left to preserve its right to offer gaming in the Lone Star State: the U.S. Congress.
On January 13 the High Court declined to hear the tribe’s appeal from a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas v. State of Texas. That court had ruled in favor of Texas, leaving the bill that is currently in Congress as the tribe’s only recourse.
H.R.759, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas Equal and Fair Opportunity Settlement Act would make clear that those two tribes are equal to most other tribes in the U.S. that are allowed to offer gaming.
Last July the House, controlled by the Democrats, passed the bill, but it is stuck in the Senate, which is under control of the GOP. Texas Senator John Cornyn, who once argued a similar case as Texas attorney general, has asked the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to hold up the bill until the state’s concerns can be addressed.
Interestingly, when the state was responding to the tribe’s petition to the Supreme Court, it called H.R.759 a “ready avenue” for the tribe and for the Tigua. It said the court didn’t need to intervene because, “The House passed that bill in July with bipartisan support, and it is now awaiting Senate action.”
Alabama-Coushatta Chairwoman Cecilia Flores told the Tyler County Booster: “We are trying to get the word out, trying to tell our story, and tell how important this is to East Texas.”
