Tribal bingo
SCOTUS decision settles tribal bingo dispute As Texas tribe wins Supreme Court decision in long-running dispute with state of Texas over bingo operations, Heidi McNeil Staudenmaier analyzes the decision and its implications.
OVERVIEW OF PUEBLO/TEXAS BINGO DISPUTE
disagreed on the extent to which Texas gaming laws applied to the Tribe’s gaming operations. Section 107 of the Restoration Act directly addressed gaming on the Tribe’s lands. It provided in subsection (a) that “gaming activities which are prohibited by [Texas law] are hereby prohibited on the reservation and on lands of the tribe.” However, subsection (b) provided that the statute did not grant Texas “civil or criminal regulatory jurisdiction” with respect to matters covered by Section 107. In a lengthy saga of litigation, Texas has consistently read the Restoration Act as subjecting the Tribe to the entire body of its gaming laws and regulations. In contrast, the Tribe has interpreted the Act’s language to be consistent with the case California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U. S. 202 (1987) – which laid the groundwork for the passage of the IGRA in 1988. The Tribe maintained that the Restoration Act barred it from offering only those gaming activities the State fully prohibited. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly sided with
In a 5-4 vote on June 15, 2022, the United States Supreme Court resolved a longstanding dispute about the ability of the State of Texas to control gaming conducted by the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Tribe (the “Tribe”). The case centered on language found in the 1987 Ysleta del Sur and Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribes of Texas Restoration Act (the “Restoration Act”). In 1968, Congress recognized the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (as well as the Alabama-Coushatta) as an Indian tribe and assigned trust responsibilities for the Tribe to Texas. The Tribe’s reservation is located near El Paso, Texas. During the early 1980s, Texas renounced those responsibilities. In 1987, the federal government re-assumed the responsibilities for both the Tribe and the Alabama-Coushatta, by enacting the Restoration Act. The following year, Congress enacted the Federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”). For several years thereafter, the Tribe and the State
46 • IMGL Magazine • November 2022
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