KG Urban Enterprises, LLC v. Patrick

293 F.R.D. 42, 2013 WL 2467729, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79880
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedJune 6, 2013
DocketCivil No. 11-12070-NMG
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 293 F.R.D. 42 (KG Urban Enterprises, LLC v. Patrick) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
KG Urban Enterprises, LLC v. Patrick, 293 F.R.D. 42, 2013 WL 2467729, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79880 (D. Mass. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

GORTON, District Judge.

Plaintiff challenges a provision of an Act Establishing Expanded Gaming in the Commonwealth, 2011 Mass. Acts eh. 194 (“the Gaming Act”), that it alleges unconstitutionally prevents it from competing for a commercial gaming license in southeastern Massachusetts. Pending before the Court are competing motions to intervene filed by the two federally recognized Indian tribes residing in southeastern Massachusetts, as well as two conditional motions to intervene filed by related parties.

I. Background

In February, 2012, the Court declined to find the Gaming Act unconstitutional based upon what it believed to be a pure question of law, and therefore denied plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction and dismissed the case. See Docket No. 26. That opinion described the disputed provision of the Gaming Act and the related federal statute, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”). The Court assumes familiarity with those statutes and focuses instead on the instructions of the First Circuit Court of Appeals which reversed this Court’s decision and remanded the case for further proceedings as enlarged upon below.

A. The First Circuit’s Remand

In August, 2012, the First Circuit affirmed this Court’s denial of injunctive relief but remanded the ease for further proceedings. It did so because, although denial of relief at “[that] point in time” was appropriate, see KG Urban Enterprises, LLC v. Patrick, 693 F.3d 1, 27 (1st Cir.2012), the Court could not determine whether “issuance of equitable relief may not be appropriate at some future date.” Id.

That temporal distinction stemmed from a perceived ambiguity as to whether § 91 of the Gaming Act was “authorized” by IGRA and, therefore, constitutional, under Washington v. Confederated Bands & Tribes of Yakima Indian Nation, 439 U.S. 463, 99 S.Ct. 740, 58 L.Ed.2d 740 (1979) (“Yakima ”), at a point in time when there were no “Indian lands” within Region C. On appeal, plaintiff conceded that if a federally recognized tribe in Massachusetts possessed “Indian lands” in Region C within the meaning of IGRA, § 91 of the Gaming Act would be “authorized” under Yakima and subject only to rational basis review. See KG Urban, 693 F.3d at 21. The First Circuit opined that plaintiffs “strongest argument” contesting the constitutionality of § 91 was based upon the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U.S. 379,129 S.Ct. 1058, 172 L.Ed.2d 791 (2009), which held that the Secretary of the Interior lacked authority to take lands into trust on behalf of federally recognized Indian tribes which were not “under federal jurisdiction” in 1934. KG Urban, 693 F.3d at 22. If the Secretary lacked that authority, so plaintiff argued, there was no real prospect, absent an act of Congress, for land to be taken into trust and there could be no Indian lands in Region C that “authorized” § 91 under Yakima. See id.

In addition to noting that the constitutionality of § 91 may well depend upon the eligibility of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe (“the Mashpee”) to have land taken into trust, the First Circuit articulated an alternative basis under which the Gaming Act might pass constitutional muster:

If the Secretary is willing under the IGRA to approve a tribal-state compact contingent on the relevant land being later acquired in trust, then the Commonwealth can argue that § 91 establishes a parallel mechanism, meant to facilitate the purposes of the IGRA, even if not precisely authorized by the IGRA, for a limited period of time.
The argument, of course, would become weaker with the passage of time and the continuation of the status that there are no “Indian lands” in the region. The tribal-state compact entered into weakens the state’s position by extending the period of time ... And the argument is qualitatively [46]*46different, and even weaker, to the extent that Congressional action is required to provide the Secretary authority to take this land into trust.

KG Urban, 693 F.3d at 25.

B. The Tribal-State Gaming Compacts

While this Court’s denial of plaintiffs motion for preliminary injunction was pending on appeal in July, 2012, the Commonwealth and the Mashpee entered into a tribal-state compact that was approved by the Massachusetts General Court shortly thereafter (“the First Compact”). In October, 2012, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (“BIA”) disapproved of the First Compact on the grounds that, inter alia, the Commonwealth would have been permitted to retain too great a percentage of the Mashpee’s gaming revenues. The two sides returned to the negotiating table thereafter and, in March, 2013, entered into a revised tribal-state compact (“the Second Compact”). Consideration of the Second Compact is currently underway in the Massachusetts General Court.

C. The Decision by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to Accept Commercial Licensee Applications for Region C

Following the BIA’s disapproval of the First Compact, in December, 2012 defendant Massachusetts Gaming Commission (“the Commission”) solicited public comment on a so-called “dual track” proposal under which it would begin accepting commercial applications for a Category One gaming license in Region C while the Mashpee continued to pursue the federal approvals necessary to operate a tribal casino there. Notably, under that proposal, the Commission would terminate the commercial application process in Region C if at any point it determined that the Mashpee had made substantial progress toward eligibility for IGRA-compliant gaming. After a public meeting, and at the request of the Mashpee, the Commission resolved to take no action on the proposal for 90 days.

In March, 2013, the Commission solicited public comment on a separate proposal, wherein it would invite commercial applications for a Category One license in Region C and, upon completion of the process, determine whether to issue a commercial license. That decision was to be made based upon the strength of the commercial applications received by the Commission and any tribal-state compact existing between the Commonwealth and the Mashpee. On April 18, 2013, the Commission voted to adopt that proposal and begin accepting commercial applications.

II. Procedural History

This Court denied a motion for a preliminary injunction and dismissed the case in February, 2012. The First Circuit reversed, in part, and remanded for further proceedings in August, 2012. In light of that mandate, in September, 2012 the Court held a status conference to discuss with the parties how best to proceed.

Before the Court could set a new schedule, two interested Indian tribes moved to intervene. The first tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (“the Aquinnah”), moved to intervene in order to defend the constitutionality of the Gaming Act. The second tribe, the Mashpee, moved to intervene by special limited appearance in order to seek dismissal of plaintiffs Complaint.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
293 F.R.D. 42, 2013 WL 2467729, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79880, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kg-urban-enterprises-llc-v-patrick-mad-2013.