Class III Gaming in Texas and State Power

Although it seems to have flown under the radar screen, the recent Fifth Circuit decision in State of Texas v. USA (No. 05-50754) decision threatens to eviscerate the federal government’s attempts to prevent tribes from being politically subordinate to states.

The decision clearly frustrates the Kickapoo’s efforts to bring Class III gaming to Texas. But more significantly, it places into question the Interior Secretary’s attempt to bring balance to the politics of negotiating tribal-state compacts by promulgating regulations to compensate for the 1996 Supreme Court decision in Seminole Tribe v. Florida, whose implications for state political power over tribes we've discussed in other posts.

The court’s analysis was rather technical –- it relied on the complicated Chevron legal doctrine for judicial review of agency discretionary authority –- but its political implications are broader for the tribes/states across the U.S. The possibility of an appeal is next, and that in turn would go to the important question of Interior Secretary’s authority under IGRA.

Read the court’s opinion here.