Casino opponents await Supreme Court case

Thursday, December 4, 2008  

Casino opponents in Massachusetts are awaiting the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court case that they say could prevent the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe from acquiring trust land.

In Carcieri v. Kempthorne, the court is being asked to block tribes that gained federal recognition after 1934 from taking part in the land-into-trust process. The Mashpees weren't recognized until May 2007.

"If the Supreme Court decides in favor, there will be no land into trust," Rich Young, the president of an anti-gaming group called Casinofacts and another one called Casino Free Massachusetts, told The Boston Gobe.

Adam Bond, a local official who supports the casino, doesn't believe a negative decision will hurt the tribe. "Since 1934, 50 tribes have gotten land into trust, and the Congress didn't say a thing," Bond told the paper. "If Carcieri wins the case, I think Congress will do something. Otherwise, what happens to all the tribes sitting out there now?"

The tribe has two land-into-trust applications pending at the Bureau of Indian Affairs. One is for a casino in the town of Middileboro and the other is a non-gaming acquisition in the town of Mashpee, the tribe's headquarters.

Get the Story:
Wampanoag push forward on casino plan (The Boston Globe 12/4)