The Buffalo casino, which new Buffalo School Board member Carl Paladino lobbied heavily for until it dawned on him that the Senecas weren’t going to allow him to partner on any affiliated development, will soon grow much larger because of a recent decision by a Federal District Court judge who just a few years ago held that this particular casino was illegal and should close. Judge William Skretny ruled, on July 8, 2008, that the federal agency responsible for regulating Native American casinos had made a determination that was “arbitrary, capricious, and not in accordance with the law” when the agency let the Senecas go forth with gambling on the Buffalo land they’d purchased from Carl Paladino. The judge subsequently instructed the Bush Administration to close the casino “forthwith,” a somewhat antique English locution meant to convey urgency, speed, quickness, and such.The Bush Administration didn’t close the casino. The gambling continued. On the very last day the Bush Administration was in office, just hours before Barack Obama took the Presidential Oath of Office, Bush’s appointees made an administrative determination that has been litigated twice, ruled on by Skretny twice (and quite differently), and which is now being appealed to a higher court than Skretny’s. All along, the Bush Administration’s policy has been in force: notwithstanding a very straightforward rule that has been applied everywhere else in the United States since 1989, a rule that land acquired after that year could not be used by a Native American group to operate an off-reservation casino, the Bush Administration allowed the Seneca Gaming Corporation to go ahead with operating a gambling casino.Get the Story:
Bruce Fisher: Slow jurisprudence, permanent gambling (Artvoice 6/27)
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