Gaming tribes oppose state’s stay request for completing compacts

Arguing "the state's interest is not synonymous with the public interest," attorneys for several California gaming tribes filed a motion demanding Gov. Gavin Newsom restart compact negotiations.

Several tribes have sued the state since 2019, claiming the administration wasn't operating in good faith in talks over renewing expiring compacts. They claimed negotiators tried to bring in topics outside of gaming, such as enforcing state labor and environmental laws, in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

On March 31, Judge Anthony W. Ishii granted summary judgment to the tribes, ordering the state to complete compacts with the tribes within 60 days. The California Department of Justice appealed last month and requested a stay. There are now 10 tribes included under Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians v. California, 1:19-cv-00024-AWI-SKO (E.D. Cal., filed Jan. 4, 2019).

The motion filed Wednesday asks Ishii to trigger a remedial scheme outlined in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act requiring the state to engage in expedited negotiations.

"The state offers no support for the proposition that this mandated remedial scheme can be put on hold for two years while it pursues its appellate remedies and while economic devastation is inflicted on the plaintiff tribes through the termination of their compacts," wrote Lester J. Marston with Rapport & Marston in Ukiah and Marina del Rey attorney David B. Dehnert. "The state offers no factual support for its argument that 'public policy' favors a stay, because there is none."

They rejected the state's arguments that a stay would preserve the status quo while litigation plays out, noting, "If the plaintiff tribes' compacts expire in 13 months, they will lose the right to offer governmental gaming." This would force tribes to cut back their services to members, they said, and some could lose hotels and casinos to foreclosure.

-- Malcolm Maclachlan