New Change In Decade-Long Battle When it comes to First Light-weight Casino Inside Massachusetts

For approximately eight years, Massachusetts has been on the cusp of opening a fourth casino.

In September 2015, the Department of the Interior placed the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s land into federal trust. Out of the 321 acres in the trust, 151 were designated for gaming use. When the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe broke ground on the First Light Resort and Casino in April 2016, the stage was set for the next Massachusetts internet casino.

However, almost seven years later, no progress has been made on the casino’s construction.

That’s because, throughout this entire process, a legal challenge has been ongoing.

Wait carries on for fourth Massachusetts internet casino despite political election

Michelle Littlefield is section of a parti that opposes the suggested First Light-weight Casino inside Taunton. Littlefield believes the particular DOI failed to have the capacity to take the particular Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’ versus land directly into federal confidence.

Littlefield’ s competitors goes back in order to 2012, once the First Light-weight Casino was initially proposed. Lady was area of the opposition movements to political election “ no” on the suggested casino. The main opposition to the casino included concerns about its proximity to a grammar school, the belief that it would not generate enough local job opportunities, and issues with the intergovernmental agreement between the tribe and the town.

The opposition was defeated in 2012 when Taunton residents approved the casino, voting nearly 2-1 in favor of its construction. As part of the tribe agreement, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe would pay Taunton $33 million in infrastructure payments, amounting to $13 million per year, for hosting the casino.

However, Littlefield, the opposition leader, has not given up. She continues to lead the ongoing opposition and has formed a coalition to campaign against it.

Nevertheless, she has lost her most recent challenge. On February 12, 2023, District Judge Angel Kelley ruled in favor of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. Judge Kelley determined that the Secretary of the Interior was correct in granting the tribe federal recognition and taking their land into federal trust.

Given Littlefield’s history, she will likely appeal the decision, which could further delay the opening of the First Light Casino. However, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe emerged from this latest challenge with an important victory.

“The Mashpee Wampanoag have called this part of Massachusetts home since time immemorial,” the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe stated in a statement to PlayMA. “The Tribe is confident in the morality and legal justice of its position in the litigation.”

Littlefield’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.

Here’s a dive into this decade-long legal battle and an update as of February 13, 2023.

An account of A couple of Court Rulings

The maze of court rulings, tribal laws, and judicial opinions have all stemmed from Littlefield’s early opposition to the First Light Casino. Her legal challenge against the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe revolves around one law and one Supreme Court opinion: the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and Carcieri v. Salazar.

Typically the Indian Reorganization Act

The Indian Reorganization Act was the foundation for programs that aimed to promote Native American self-sufficiency on their reservations. One of the policies it reversed was the taking of tribal lands to give to settlers. This act provided some restitution to Native Americans and created a mechanism for tribes to regain more land over time.

The clause that is important for the Littlefield case specifies that “members of any recognized Indian tribe now” are recognized as sovereign individuals and allowed to have their lands placed in trust.

Therefore, any tribe that was recognized in 1934 is eligible to have its land placed in the federal trust, which reserves tribal lands for tribal members only.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe was federally recognized in 2007 after demonstrating that its history in the state dates back to 1621, the year after the pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock. (Its full history goes back 10,000 years on present-day Cape Cod, but the connection with the US government is legally significant.)

As a federally recognized tribe, it can have its land included in the federal trust.

Based on the Indian Reorganization Act, it appears that the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe would likely prevail over the Littlefield resistance.

Carcieri versus. Salazar

Therefore, in March 2009, the Supreme Court ruled in Carcieri v. Salazar. Rhode Island’s governor questioned whether the DOI was allowed to place land in trust for a tribe that hadn’t been federally recognized until 1988. The court ruled against the DOI, stating that the federal government couldn’t put land into federal trust.

Based on this ruling, the Littlefield case in Massachusetts seemed like a clear victory.

However, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe relied on a different clause in the Indian Reorganization Act. The tribe’s lawyers argued that because the tribe occupied the reservation in 1934, even though they weren’t federally recognized until 2007, their land was eligible to be placed into the federal trust.

The Littlefield case was the first time this interpretation was tested in court. It wouldn’t take long to get an answer.

Typically the Rollercoaster involving Court Rulings

Throughout July 2016, a US District Court ruled that the DOI lacked the authority to place the Mashpee Wampanoag land into federal trust. This put the First Light Casino plans into uncertainty, where they have remained ever since.

The tribe’s fortunes worsened during President Trump’s administration. In 2018, the DOI took the opposite stance from 2015 and made arguments similar to those in the Littlefield case. At that time, the DOI was attempting to remove the Mashpee Wampanoag land from trust that had been placed in trust during the Obama administration.

The tribe appealed this decision. Now, this battle was bigger than the casino plans. It was about whether the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe would still retain its land.

In March 2020, a federal judge ruled against the tribe’s appeal, challenging the Mashpee Wampanoag’s rights to their reservation. The DOI revoked the Mashpee Wampanoag’s 321 acres of reservation land the following month. The case seemed lost.

Typically the Turning Point inside the Littlefield Difficult task

Finally, in June 2020, a US District Judge sent the Mashpee Wampanoag’s case back to the DOI. Judge Friedman ordered the DOI to reverse its 2018 decision and place the tribe’s land in federal trust.

(The US District Court was required to review the DOI’s decision. Trump’s appointee to the DOI did not comply with this requirement. The judge found the DOI’s decision to remove the Mashpee Wampanoag’s land from federal trust after the fact.)

Judge Friedman wrote that the DOI applied the wrong standard in evaluating the Mashpee Wampanoag’s tribal status. A 2014 Interior Department memo established a two-part test to determine whether a tribe was under federal jurisdiction by 1934.

However, this didn’t require formal federal recognition. Justice Stephen Breyer explained why in his concurring opinion in the 2009 Carcieri v. Salazar case. State and federal authorities often dealt with Native American tribes and treated them as if they existed on reservations. Evidence of such interactions is sufficient to establish that a tribe was under federal jurisdiction by 1934 even if they weren’t federally recognized by then.

Some of the pieces of evidence the tribe presented included:

– Reports referring to the tribe and its reservations

– Listing of tribal members on a Federal census

– Evidence that the US Federal government excluded the tribe from the forced removal policy in the 1820s

This historical evidence demonstrates that state and federal authorities recognized the presence of the Mashpee Wampanoag’s land, which satisfies the evaluation approach outlined by Judge Friedman.

The DOI filed an appeal against this decision. However, following Joe Biden’s election, the DOI policy changed again, and in March 2021, the DOI withdrew its appeal.

After six years, the DOI recognized the Mashpee Wampanoag’s right to the land placed in federal trust in 2015.

The Littlefield challenge was over. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had won.

Your fourth Casino Deal with Continues

The first Littlefield case hinged on the phrase “members of any recognized Indian tribe currently under Federal jurisdiction,” with “currently” referring to 1934. However, Justice Breyer’s concurring Supreme Court opinion acknowledges that federal jurisdiction can be proven without federal recognition. This distinction allowed the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe to achieve victory.

However, the Littlefields are not backing down. They filed a new challenge in February 2022. This time, they opposed the casino’s impact on the city of Taunton and questioned whether the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe met the definition of “Indian” in the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act.

This may be a partial shift from Michelle Littlefield’s 2016 stance. In July 2016, Wicked Local reported that her initial challenge rested on her objection to sovereign land that is “independent of state and local laws.” The same article also quotes her as stating that the 150 acres of Mashpee Wampanoag land is “back on the tax rolls and can now be under state and local control.” Finally, the article noted that her opposition to land in trust for the tribe is not based on anti-casino sentiment.

Appropriating on language appears serious after a long legal battle. The argument that a casino will change the community is a significant shift in strategy. Whether it will be successful remains to be seen.

Massachusetts Last Casino Fb timeline

On February 10, 2023, a US District Court judge ruled in favor of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, affirming that the DOI was right to place the land for the casino in the tribe’s reservation into trust.

There’s no end in sight to Littlefield’s legal challenges. It’s reasonable to expect an appeal. If the legal issues continue long enough, the DOI policy may change again depending on who is sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2025.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission website has a case schedule that goes up to 2016 and states:

“At a time deemed appropriate, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission may engage in public discourse to further our review of what course of action will be in the short and long-term best interests of Southeastern Massachusetts and the Commonwealth.”

The MGC told PlayMA that it has “no comment beyond what is listed on (their) website.”

Another group of private investors attempted and failed to lobby for the creation of a new gaming zone in Massachusetts. This private group would have developed their own casino in the newly created Region D in northern Ma . March 29 will mark the two-year anniversary of the bill’s death in committee.

The bottom line is that legalizing Massachusetts sports betting won’t have an impact on the various efforts to open the fourth casino in the state. The legal battle over the First Light Casino and the Mashpee Wampanoag’s right to the land has a life of its own.