The Buffalo Thunder Resort in New Mexico. Photo from Facebook / Cornell & Company / Mike Wilson
A federal judge on Friday blocked the Bureau of Indian Affairs from issuing Class III gaming procedures for Pojoaque Pueblo in New Mexico. Judge James Parker said the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows the federal government to step in only when a court has held a state to be in bad faith and only after the state has gone through a mediation process. Neither condition has been met in New Mexico, he determined. "IGRA is unambiguous: the [Interior] Secretary may only adopt procedures after a federal court finds the sate has failed to negotiate in good faith and ordered mediation between the parties," Parker wrote in the 29-page ruling. "Congress’s failure to anticipate states’ ability to sabotage IGRA’s remedial process does not make Congress’s delegation of authority to adopt procedures any broader: IGRA remains clear that this authority only arises after a federal court finds bad faith and the state passes up its remaining chances to negotiate a compact after such a finding." The tribe did ask a court to hold the state in bad faith. But that lawsuit was dismissed when the state invoked its sovereign immunity. Parker's decision, however, left open the door for the federal government, as the tribe's trustee, to sue the state in order to avoid the immunity issue. The tribe indicated it might wait for that to happen. “The pueblo will examine all of its options, including petitioning the Federal government to sue the sate in its role as the pueblo’s trustee, which was suggested by Senior United States District Judge James Parker in today’s decision,” the tribe said in a statement, The Albuquerque Journal reported. “The pueblo remains confident that when our compact expires in 2015, the state of New Mexico will have no jurisdiction over the pueblo or the gaming operations on its lands.” The state has said it is willing to negotiate another compact. But the tribe said the terms have been unacceptable. Turtle Talk has posted documents from the case, New Mexico v. Department of the Interior. Get the Story:
Judge rules against Pojoaque, but pueblo likely to continue fight over gambling rules (The Albuquerque Journal 10/18)
Judge: Pueblo can't make gaming deal with federal agency (The Santa Fe New Mexican 10/18)
Judge rules against New Mexico tribe trying to obtain new gambling compact from Interior (AP 10/17)
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