{"id":93177,"date":"2018-11-21T16:38:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T00:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=93177"},"modified":"2018-11-21T16:38:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T00:38:52","slug":"maine-supreme-court-wont-weigh-in-on-tribal-casino-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/maine-supreme-court-wont-weigh-in-on-tribal-casino-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine Supreme Court Won\u2019t Weigh in on Tribal Casino Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Maine Supreme Court has declined to rule on whether the state\u2019s tribes can operate casino gaming legally without the approval of the legislature, declaring the question was \u201cnot of a serious and immediate nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Maine
Henry Bear is a non-voting state representative in Maine from the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians. He has been trying for years to make headway in bringing Indian gaming to a state where recognized tribes have fewer sovereign rights than those in other states. (Image: Troy Bennet\/Bangor Daily News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The question was asked by tribal Representative Henry Bear of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, who has tried to push through several measures on tribal gaming<\/a> since his election to the House in 2013 but has been voted down<\/a> on each occasion.<\/p>\n

In August, the House for once voted in favor of Bear\u2019s proposal to petition the Supreme Court but neglected to file a brief to the court to say it was a pressing matter.<\/p>\n

Maine\u2019s constitution allows the governor, the House, or the Senate to refer questions to the court but only if they are \u201cimportant questions of law,\u201d and \u201cupon solemn occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This sends the dogged Bear back to square one in his fight to bring economic self-determination to Maine\u2019s federally recognized tribes.<\/p>\n

Murky Waters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Maine has no tribal gaming, but it does have two commercial racinos, the Hollywood Casino in Bangor and the Oxford Casino.<\/p>\n

Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988), tribes across the US are permitted to offer class II gaming such as poker and bingo without state approval, provided it is legal elsewhere in the state.<\/p>\n

But this is usually only the case if the tribe was recognized by the Indian Affairs Bureau of the US Department of the Interior before 1934, although Congress can make exceptions. None of Maine\u2019s four federally recognized tribes were.<\/p>\n

\n

Matters are complicated further by the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (1980) — under which three of the four tribes were recognized. The act limits tribal sovereignty, stating that federal Indian law does not apply to the tribes after 1980 unless the law specifically mentions Maine, which would appear to exclude them from 1988\u2019s IGRA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bear\u2019s rebuffed query to the State Supreme Court specifically asked whether the US Supreme Court\u2019s 1987 ruling in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians — the case that established Indian gaming rights and gave rise to IGRA — permitted his own tribe to offer gaming.<\/p>\n

New England Market Saturation <\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWe need jobs. We want to pay our own way,\u201d Bear said during a House debate in April. \u201cThat\u2019s the simple response to the question to us of \u2018why do you want to do it? Why do you want gaming?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, the Houlton Maliseet farm potatoes, barley, and clover on their lands, and also own a roller skating rink. Bear says a casino would benefit the tribe on numerous public health and infrastructure issues.<\/p>\n

But the House\u2019s failure to file a brief to the Supreme Court suggests there is still little appetite for tribal gaming among the legislature. The New England casino market has become saturated in the last decade and the state\u2019s two racinos are already feeling the pinch from recent gambling expansion in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

In 2003, voters in a public referendum shot down the authorization of tribal gaming in Maine by a margin of 2:1. At the same time, they opted to approve a ballot measure authorizing slot machine gaming at the Bangor racino, leading the tribes to claim racism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Maine Supreme Court has declined to rule on whether the state\u2019s tribes can operate casino gaming legally without the approval of the legislature, declaring the question was \u201cnot of a serious and immediate nature.\u201d The question was asked by tribal Representative Henry Bear of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, who has tried to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":93179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,61,18456],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMaine Supreme Court Won\u2019t Weigh in on Tribal Casino Question<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maine Supreme Court says question on tribal casinos was \u201cnot of a serious nature,\u201d thwarting Representative Henry Bear of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians latest attempt to make headway in bringing Indian gaming to Maine.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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