Judge throws out lawsuit seeking to block Gun Lake casino

Students of Constitutional Law, particularly MY students of ConLaw should pay attention to this.  (And if you're not, it's interesting, anyway).

A federal judge had a casino case on the bench.  The tribe generally known as the Gun Lake Tribe wanted to build a casino.  The Department of the Interior had taken the land for it into trust.  Here's the rub - the Carcieri decision, which held that if you weren't a recognized tribe in 1934, the feds couldn't take land into trust for the tribe.  Well, the Gun Lake Tribe didn't gain recognition until 1999.  That would seem to leave them out, absent any correction in the statutory law by Congress, upon which the Carcieri decision was based.

So you'd think that would stop the casino dead in the tracks of the construction bulldozers.  AH, but you would think that too soon.....because the plaintiff seeking to stop the casino with the lawsuit lacked something critically important (here's the ConLaw connection).....he didn't have STANDING to bring the suit to challenge the casino construction.  He's only a private citizen, with no direct interest in the land-into-trust process, so says Judge Richard Leon.  No standing, no lawsuit.

See the full story HERE on Indianz.com.

twp

twp