State of Texas v. Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of TX
State of Texas v. Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of TX
Opinion
For almost thirty years, the State of Texas and one of its Indian tribes, the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe (the "Tribe"), have disputed the impact of two federal statutes on the Tribe's ability to conduct gaming on the Tribe's reservation. The first statute, the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo and Alabama and Coushatta Indian Tribes of Texas Restoration Act
1
(the "Restoration Act"), restored the Tribe's status as a federally-recognized tribe and limited its gaming operations according to state law. The second, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act ("IGRA"),
Soon after IGRA was enacted, this court determined that the Restoration Act and IGRA conflict and that the Restoration Act governs the Tribe's gaming activities.
See
Ysleta del sur Pueblo v. Texas
("
Ysleta I
"),
The Supreme Court then decided
National Cable & Telecommunications Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services
,
I.
A.
In 1987, Congress passed the Restoration Act to restore "the Federal recognition of" both the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo (the "Pueblo," an Indian tribe in far west *443 Texas) and the Tribe. Pub. L. No. 100-89, §§ 103(a), 203(a), 101 Stat. at 667, 670. 2 The Restoration Act's final section regulates gaming on the Tribe's reservation and lands. It provides that "[a]ll gaming activities which are prohibited by the laws of the State of Texas are hereby prohibited on the reservation and on the lands of the tribe." Id . § 207(a), 101 Stat. at 672. 3 It bars Texas from asserting regulatory control over otherwise legal gaming on the Tribe's reservation and lands. Id. § 207(b), 101 Stat. at 672. It also gives "the courts of the United States ... exclusive jurisdiction over any offense in violation" of its gaming restriction and limits Texas to "bringing an action in the courts of the United States to enjoin violations of the provisions of this section." Id. § 207(c), 101 Stat. at 672.
Congress enacted IGRA the following year. Finding that "existing Federal law d[id] not provide clear standards or regulations for the conduct of gaming on Indian lands,"
IGRA defines three classes of gaming that federally recognized tribes may offer and regulates each differently. Tribes have "exclusive jurisdiction" over "class I gaming," which consists of "social games solely for prizes of minimal value or traditional forms of Indian gaming" associated with "tribal ceremonies or celebrations."
*444 B.
Notwithstanding the Restoration Act, Texas, the Tribe, and the Pueblo have long disputed whether IGRA applies to the Tribe and the Pueblo. Texas avers that IGRA's permissive gaming structure is inconsistent with Sections 107(a) and 207(a) of the Restoration Act, which prohibit gaming that violates Texas law on the Pueblo's and Tribe's lands, respectively. The Tribe maintains that IGRA permits it to conduct gaming operations according to IGRA's three-class structure.
This court first considered the relationship between the Restoration Act and IGRA in Ysleta I . Under IGRA, the Pueblo had tried to negotiate a compact with Texas to permit class III gaming. Texas refused, citing the Restoration Act and insisting that state law prohibited the proposed games. The Pueblo sued to compel Texas to negotiate, and the district court granted summary judgment for the Pueblo.
This court reversed, holding that "(1) the Restoration Act and IGRA establish different regulatory regimes with regard to gaming" and that "(2) the Restoration Act prevails over IGRA when gaming activities proposed by the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo are at issue."
Ysleta I
,
This court thus concluded "that [the Restoration Act]-and not IGRA-would govern the determination of whether gaming activities proposed by the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo are allowed under Texas law, which functions as surrogate federal law." Id ."If the [Pueblo] wishe[d] to vitiate [the restrictive gaming provisions] of the Restoration Act," we declared, "it will have to petition Congress to amend or repeal the Restoration Act rather than merely comply with the procedures of IGRA." Id . 5
C.
The Tribe was not a party in
Ysleta I
, but, "particularly with regard to the sections concerning gaming," its Restoration Act is almost identical to the Pueblo's.
Relying on
Ysleta I
, the district court held that the Restoration Act governed the legality of the Tribe's gaming activities.
D.
The Tribe ceased all gaming for twelve years. But in 2015, it started the process outlined by IGRA to secure NIGC's approval to offer class II gaming. As IGRA requires,
see
The Chairman approved the ordinance via letter, explaining that "[n]othing in the IGRA's language or its legislative history indicates that the Tribe is outside the scope of NIGC's jurisdiction." 9 He then determined that the Tribe's reservation-established through the Restoration Act-counts as "Indian lands" under IGRA. Those findings, the Chairman continued, demonstrate that the Tribe's "lands are eligible for gaming under IGRA." The Chairman thus concluded that the Tribe's ordinance was "consistent with the requirements of IGRA and NIGC regulations" and approved it. 10
Despite initially observing that the Restoration Act and IGRA potentially overlap,
11
the Chairman did not carefully consider whether the Restoration Act limited the jurisdictional reach of IGRA. He opined, instead, that "the Tribe possesses sufficient legal jurisdiction over its Restoration Act lands" for IGRA to apply. In other words, the Chairman determined that the Restoration Act does not constitute a "Federal law" that is a "specific[ ] prohibit[ion]" on the Tribe's proposed gaming.
With NIGC's approval in hand, the Tribe began to develop Naskila Entertainment Center ("Naskila"), a class II gaming facility offering electronic bingo. Before it *446 opened, the Tribe and Texas forged a prelitigation agreement specifying that the Tribe could operate Naskila pending a state inspection. Texas committed to "advise the Tribe ... whether the gambling operation meets the requirements of Texas law federalized in the Restoration Act" and reserved the right to seek various forms of relief if it did not.
Upon inspection, the state determined that the electronic bingo at Naskila violated various provisions of Texas gaming law. Then the state revived the decades-old case-in which the district court had permanently enjoined the Tribe's gaming activities that had violated the Restoration Act-by filing a motion for contempt, averring that the gaming at Naskila violated the 2002 injunction. 12 Texas also sought a declaration "that IGRA does not apply to the Tribe because IGRA did not repeal the Restoration Act, and, accordingly," the Tribe "may not conduct Class II IGRA gaming on its lands." The Tribe, in turn, moved for relief from the 2002 injunction, contending that the "[NIGC's] authoritative interpretation" of the Restoration Act and IGRA "both constitutes a change in law and eliminates the sole legal basis for the injunction."
Texas moved for summary judgment on issues related to its motion for contempt, and the Tribe sought partial summary judgment on whether its bingo operations are class II gaming under IGRA. The district court granted Texas's motion "with respect to the State's request for a declaration ... that the Restoration Act, and consequently, Texas law, applies to the Tribe's gaming activities." The court refused to extend Chevron deference 13 to the NIGC's letter concluding that IGRA applied, and it denied the Tribe's motion for relief from the permanent injunction.
The Tribe appeals, asking us to decide whether the district court abused its discretion by refusing to defer to the NIGC's determination that IGRA applies to the Tribe's gaming. The district court stayed its ruling pending appeal. 14
II.
District courts may "relieve a party ... from a final judgment, order, or proceeding" if "applying it prospectively is no longer equitable." FED. R. CIV. P. 60(b), 60(b)(5). Where, as here, "the relief sought is dissolution or modification of an injunction, the district court may grant a Rule 60(b)(5) motion when the party seeking relief can show a significant change in statutory or decisional law."
Cooper v. Tex. Alcoholic Beverage Comm'n
,
We review for abuse of discretion the denial of a Rule 60(b)(5) motion for relief from judgment.
Moore v. Tangipahoa Par. Sch. Bd.
,
III.
This case turns on whether a judicial precedent-holding that the Restoration Act and IGRA conflict and that the former, not the latter, applies to the Tribe's gaming activity-or a later contrary agency interpretation should control.
Brand X
supplied the framework: "A court's prior judicial construction of a statute trumps an agency construction otherwise entitled to
Chevron
deference only if the prior court decision holds that its construction follows from the
unambiguous terms of the statute
and thus leaves no room for agency discretion."
Brand X
,
A.
Brand X
's rule that only a prior judicial interpretation adhering to the unambiguous terms of the statute trumps an agency construction "follows from
Chevron
itself."
Consequently, a prior judicial decision need not "say in so many magic words that its holding is the only permissible interpretation of the statute in order for that holding to be binding on an agency."
Exelon Wind 1, L.L.C. v. Nelson
,
Instead of requiring the prior decision to have called the relevant statute "unambiguous," reviewing courts have looked for the contrary-whether the decision called the statute "ambiguous." For example, this court recently held that an agency's interpretation could prevail over a prior judicial interpretation because the latter had "expressly recognized that the court decided to come down on one side of a complex debate."
18
And where other circuits have deferred to an agency's interpretation under
Brand X
, those courts have "emphasize[d] that their prior decisions also noted ambiguity in the text at issue."
See
Exelon Wind 1
,
B.
Ysleta I
did not find "ambiguity in the text at issue."
Additionally, we cited evidence that Congress did not intend for IGRA to apply to all Indian gaming.
20
Moreover, we specifically rejected the theory that "to the extent that a conflict between the two exists, IGRA impliedly repeals the Restoration Act."
Ysleta I
,
The Tribe counters that, for two reasons,
Ysleta I
does not foreclose the NIGC's determination that IGRA applies to the Tribe. First, the Tribe emphasizes
*449
that
Ysleta I
's holding "was based on nontextual cues from legislative history and canons of construction" and thus could not have "follow[ed] from the unambiguous terms of the statute."
Brand X
,
Second, the Tribe asserts that
Ysleta I
"never had occasion to determine whether the Restoration Act constitutes a federal law that specifically prohibits [c]lass II gaming on Indian lands under IGRA." That misses what
Ysleta I
did hold-that the Restoration Act's gaming provisions, and not IGRA, provide the framework for deciding the legality of any and all gaming by the Pueblo and the Tribe on their Restoration Act lands.
Ysleta I
,
In sum,
Brand X
teaches that a court should not defer to an agency's interpretation of a statute if a "judicial precedent hold[s] that the statute unambiguously forecloses the agency's interpretation."
Brand X
,
The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying relief from the permanent injunction. The order denying the motion for relief from judgment is AFFIRMED.
Pub. L. No. 100-89, §§ 201-07,
Though the Pueblo has extensively litigated the same questions the Tribe raises, the Pueblo is not a party to this appeal but appears as amicus curiae .
That subsection concludes by explaining that the "provisions of this subsection are enacted in accordance with the tribe's request in Tribal Resolution No. T.C.-86-07." Restoration Act § 207(a), 101 Stat. at 672. That resolution, in turn, was purportedly passed out of concern that the Restoration Act would not be enacted "unless the bill was amended to provide for direct application of state laws governing gaming and bingo on the [Tribe's] Reservation." The resolution "respectfully request[ed] [the Tribe's] representatives" in Congress amend the Restoration Act to "provide that all gaming, gambling, lottery, or bingo, as defined by the laws and administrative regulations of the state of Texas, shall be prohibited on the Tribe's reservation or on Tribal land."
The significance of the Restoration Act's reference to the Tribe's resolution is disputed. The state contends that the resolution represents a quid pro quo in which the Tribe agreed to foreswear gaming for all time in exchange for passage of the Restoration Act. The Tribe examines the evolution of drafts of the Restoration Act and emphasizes that strong prohibitory language was ultimately deleted. In any event, the stringent prohibition proposed by the resolution was not included.
"The former applies to two specifically named Indian tribes located in one particular state, and the latter applies to all tribes nationwide."
Ysleta I
,
Though Ysleta I arose in the context of the Pueblo's trying to conduct IGRA class III gaming, Ysleta I does not suggest that the conflict between the Restoration Act and IGRA is limited to class III gaming.
We further ruled that
Ysleta I
's holding that "the tribe was precluded from seeking relief under the IGRA" was binding, contrary to the Tribe's assertion that it was
dictum
.
Alabama Coushatta Tribe of Tex.
,
See, e.g.
,
See
Letter from Jonodev O. Chaudhuri, Chairman, Nat'l Indian Gaming Comm'n, to Nita Battise, Chairperson, Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Tex. (Oct. 8, 2015).
Id . The Chairman noted that the Department of the Interior interpreted IGRA as impliedly repealing the Restoration Act, but the Chairman did not adopt that conclusion.
See id . (noting that the Restoration Act "applies state gaming laws to the Tribe's lands, with a qualification," thus raising the question "how to interpret the interface between IGRA and the Restoration Act").
The Tribe was the plaintiff (as it had sought a declaratory judgment that its gaming activities were lawful under IGRA), and Texas was the defendant. When Texas reopened the case, the court granted its motion to realign the parties, making Texas the plaintiff.
See
Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, Inc.
,
We have jurisdiction under
Brand X
,
See also
Silva-Trevino v. Holder
,
See also
Council for Urological Interests v. Burwell
,
Acosta v. Hensel Phelps Constr. Co.
,
A plurality of the Supreme Court has likewise held that, under
Brand X
, a court need not have said that the statute it was interpreting was "unambiguous." Instead, "[i]f a court,
employing traditional tools of statutory construction
, ascertains that Congress had an intention on the precise question at issue, that intention is the law and must be given effect."
United States v. Home Concrete & Supply, LLC
,
See
Ysleta I
,
The Tribe suggests that the Restoration Act's application of Texas laws to the Tribe's gambling is somewhat empty because Texas does not "prohibit" gaming as defined in
California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians
,
The Tribe alternatively contends that
Ysleta I
should be overruled. The rule of orderliness forbids us from reaching that issue.
See
Jacobs v. Nat'l Drug Intelligence Ctr.
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State of TEXAS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ALABAMA-COUSHATTA TRIBE OF TEXAS, Defendant-Appellant.
- Cited By
- 11 cases
- Status
- Published