United States First Circuit

In a suit by the State of Rhode Island against the Department of the Interior over the Department's taking of land into trust for an Indian tribe without the consent of the State, the court, sitting en banc, affirms the judgment of the district court where: 1) the text of the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) is sufficiently ambiguous that the Secretary has, under the Chevron doctrine, authority to construe the Act; 2) the Secretary's construction is rational and not inconsistent with the statutory language or legislative history; 3) the Settlement Act neither explicitly bars by its terms the Secretary's actions, nor implicitly repeals or constrains the Secretary's authority under the IRA to place land into trust for the Tribe; and 4) the placing of the Parcel into trust does not violate the State's sovereignty.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/20/2007
• Published 07/20/2007

Judges

• Before BOUDIN, Chief Judge, TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, SELYA, Senior Circuit Judge, LYNCH, LIPEZ, and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Claire Richards, Special Counsel, for appellant Donald L. Carcieri., Stephen P. Collette and Stephen P. Collette & Associates on brief for National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, amicus curiae., Neil F.X. Kelly, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Patrick C. Lynch, Attorney General, was on brief, for appellant State of Rhode Island., Troy King, Attorney General for the State of Alabama, Talis J. Colberg, Attorney General for the State of Alaska, Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General for the State of Connecticut, Susan Quinn Cobb, Assistant Attorney General for the State of Connecticut, Lawrence G. Wasden, Attorney General for the State of Idaho, Paul J. Morrison, Attorney General for the State of Kansas, Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Attorney General for the State of Missouri, Wayne Stenehjem, Attorney General for the State of North Dakota, Larry Long, Attorney General for the State of South Dakota, John P. Guhin, Assistant Attorney General for the State of South Dakota, Mark L. Shurtleff, Attorney General for the State of Utah, and William H. Sorrell, Attorney General for the State of Vermont, on brief for the States of Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont, amici curiae., Joseph S. Larisa, Jr., Assistant Solicitor for Indian Affairs, for appellant Town of Charlestown., Ian Heath Gershengorn, with whom Sam Hirsch, Jenner & Block LLP, John Dossett, Riyaz A. Kanji, Kanji & Katzen PLLC, Tracy Labin, Richard Guest, and Native AmericanRights Fund were on brief, for National Congress of American Indians, Absentee Shawnee Tribe, Akiak Native Community, Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Coeur d' Alene Tribe, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, Ely Shoshone Tribe, Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Ft. McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Inupiat Community of Arctic Slope (IRA), Kenaitze Indian Tribe, IRA, Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Lovelock Paiute Tribe, Lummi Nation, Moapa Paiute Band of the Moapa Indian Reservation, Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma, Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island, Native Village of Venetie IRATribal Government, Nez Perce Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin, Prairie Band of Potawatami Nation, Pueblo of Laguna, Pueblo of Santa Ana, Pueblo of Taos, Seminole Tribe of Florida, Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, Suquamish Tribe, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone Indians, Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians, United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc., Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, and Yomba Shoshone Tribe, amici curiae., C. Bryant Rogers, Roth, VanAmberg, Rogers, Ortiz & Yepa, LLP, Charles A. Hobbs, and Hobbs, Straus, Dean & Walker, LLP on brief for Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, amicus curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Elizabeth Ann Peterson, Attorney, Environment and Natural Resources Division, United States Department of Justice, with whom Thomas L. Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey Bossert Clark and Ryan D. Nelson, Deputy Assistant Attorneys General, William B. Lazarus, Judith Rabinowitz, and David C. Shilton, Attorneys, Environment and Natural Resources Division, United States Department of Justice, and Mary Anne Kenworthy, Office of the Solicitor, United States Department of the Interior, were on brief, for appellees.