Keweenaw Bay Indian Community v. United States

This appeal involves a dispute among an American Indian tribe, the federal government and the State of Michigan regarding the applicability of a particular provision of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act ("IGRA"), 25 U.S.C. § 2701 et seq., to Indian gaming that is the subject of a tribal-state gaming compact. The district court concluded that the IGRA provision at issue, 25 U.S.C. § 2719, does not apply to gaming that is the subject of a valid tribal- state compact, one of the means of regulating Indian gaming created by the IGRA. The federal defendants-appellants, which include the United States of America, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Justice, and the intervenor-appellant State of Michigan appeal the district courts resolution of the declaratory judgment action, arguing that § 2719 applies to all Indian gaming subject to the IGRA, including gaming that is the subject of a valid tribal-state compact. For the following reasons, we conclude that 25 U.S.C. § 2719 applies to Indian gaming that is the subject of a tribal-state compact and we accordingly reverse and remand.