Another week, another gaming lawsuit involving Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Citing the Administrative Procedures Act, the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Citizen Potawatomi nations filed suit last Friday in the District Court for the District of Columbia against Stitt, the Department of Interior Secretary of Interior David Berhardt, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara MacLean Sweeney, Comanche Nation Chairman William Nelson and Otoe-Missouria Chairman John Shotton.
The lawsuit involves two compacts Stitt agreed to with the Comanche Nation and the Otoe-Missouria Tribe in April. The compacts were deemed approved by the Department of Interior under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in late June, but were subsequently ruled invalid by the Oklahoma Supreme Court for including terms that are not provided for under state law.
Those compacts gave the two tribes the ability to offer sports betting and other forms of gambling gambling not specified in Oklahoma’s original compact agreement with the state’s gaming tribes. The Stitt administration has since requested a rehearing to address whether those compacts can legally address forms of gambling that might be authorized later under state law.
“While the Oklahoma Supreme Court has declared those agreements invalid under Oklahoma law, their validity under federal law must also be addressed to avoid damage to the integrity of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act,” the tribes’ attorneys wrote in a news release.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has not ruled on a similar lawsuit involving the other two new gaming compacts signed on July 1 by the Stitt administration with the Kialegee Tribal Town and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. As of Tuesday afternoon, neither compact has appeared in the Federal Register.
Bernhardt and Sweeney are specifically named in the four tribes’ federal lawsuit on the grounds that they had an obligation to reject the compact since it included provisions not allowed under Oklahoma law, including sports betting.
The four tribes are also seeking a declaration that Shotton and Nelson have violated federal law by holding out their tribes’ compacts as valid, binding agreements.
Additionally, both the Chickasaw and Citizen Potawatomi nations take issue with provisions in the Comanche Nation’s compact that grant gubernatorial approval for the tribe to open three casinos outside of their jurisdictional area.
Of the three counties listed in the Comanche compact, Love County is entirely within the Chickasaw Nation’s jurisdictional area while part of Cleveland County is within the Citizen Potawatomi Nation’s boundaries.
Federal regulations require the Department of Interior to seek out comment about off-reservation land into trust acquisitions from impacted local governments, including other tribes, if the parcel in question is within their boundaries.
As of Friday, neither the Chickasaw Nation nor the Citizen Potawatomi Nation has been approached about granting approval for another tribe to take land into trust within their boundaries.
The governor’s office declined to comment on pending litigation.