Posted on 05/27/2014 9:05:44 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan
Edited on 05/27/2014 9:07:39 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
A divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Michigan can't block the opening of an American Indian casino because the state's legal challenge is barred by tribal sovereign immunity.
In a 5-4 decision, the high court said the state could not shutter the Bay Mills Indian Community's casino about 90 miles south of its Upper Peninsula reservation.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
My bad, that was Kagan, not Sotomayor, getting feisty. And all that “roll the dice” carp in the opinion? Sheesh.
***I’ve never understood how Indian reservations are allowed to have gambling, when it’s illegal for the rest of us to run that type of business.****
Wonder if they can sell 30 round magazines in Cali or Colo reservations? What about “assault” rifles in the same places?
Yeah, but you’d think states could regulate the advertising of the casinos and whatnot beyond the Indian-owned property to as to make them less than a viable option.
“I’ve never understood how Indian reservations are allowed to have gambling, when it’s illegal for the rest of us”
The rest of us don’t live on sovereign territories. The Indians have basically their own countries. Good for them and hopefully they will continue to be able to fund themselves with casinos that we can all go to. At least this kind of reparation is fun. :-)
JUSTICE SCALIA, dissenting.
In Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., 523 U. S. 751 (1998), this Court expanded the judge-invented doctrine of tribal immunity to cover off-reservation commercial activities. Id., at 760. I concurred in that decision. For the reasons given today in JUSTICE THOMAS’s dissenting opinion, which I join, I am now convinced that Kiowa was wrongly decided; that, in the intervening 16 years, its error has grown more glaringly obvious; and that stare decisis does not recommend its retention. Rather than insist that Congress clean up a mess that I helped make, I would overrule Kiowa and reverse the judgment below.
Perhaps a little humour will do here to get my observation across. My liberal spouse is the "bus lady" in the Seniors monthly bus trip to Bay Mills Casino from Canada. She broke in with a very English voice, that it is the "bus hostess". All seniors treated like royalty in Michigan (well, almost).
There is a fairly large Medical Centre there and is open to all. Of course patients would have to have requisite insurance or the good old greenbacks of course. They have an educational facility for young natives also. There is a golf course. Hundreds of non-natives have jobs there within those facilities.
Not interfering, but a very creditable job has been done overall.
Under several Cal governors (who took campaign funds from Nevada casino owners) the state tried to limit Indian gaming. One time they limited the number of slots. When you went into Pechanga on the weekends people were in line to play slots.
The Indians put in initiatives on the ballot and won every time.
Most people I have talked to about that say let the indians have the casinos, if people don’t want to gamble then don’t go.
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The term "tribal sovereign immunity" seems to be based on inconsistent federal government laws that are a consequence of state apathy towards the issue.
Tribal sovereignty in the United StatesIn other words, the states have forgotten that they they have absolute control over what the Constitution says which gives the corrupt feds a foothold for mischief concerning the issue.
Back when I used to smoke I bought online from some reservations but soon switched to the stuff your own option. Ohio just got too damned greedy. The last four years I smoked I think I was paying around 90cents a pack to make my own. By the time they started going after the loose tobacco I was ready to quit anyway. That was around five years ago. I should have stopped smoking sooner but I managed to avoid years of the confiscatory taxes.
It's all based on the legal fiction that they are still somehow soverign 'nations', Personally, I'm of the opinon that if you're going to support this particular legal fiction, then the citizens of this 'nation' shouldn't have any say in American politics. Similarly, those folk shouldn't be able to get welfare or similar government handouts.
Yeah, I'm sure we could give them MFN trading status, but I'm also sure there are other burdens of being their own 'nation' that they aren't having to bear.
I don’t smoke but the ongoing escalation between the Senecas and NYS has been fascinating to watch. The tribe was threatening to shut down the New York Thruway where it crosses their land.
Wow.
Thank you! I’ll follow that from here forward.
I don’t care about morons who waste their money on gambling. I care about special rights for a special few.
Its time to ditch the reservations and the extra rights.
Indians have seniority. If they are not under US jurisdiction how would their rights be “special?”
Then they need to lose the right to vote and lobby our government.
I’m all for separate nations. Right now it’s a mix. Don’t know if the US would relinquish all control.
solution: open up casino ownership to all citizens.
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