Aroostook Band of Micmacs v. Executive Director Me, No. CIV. 03-24-B-K.
| Citation | 307 F.Supp.2d 95 |
| Decision Date | 24 February 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. CIV. 03-24-B-K. |
| Parties | AROOSTOOK BAND OF MICMACS, Plaintiff v. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MAINE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, Defendant |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Maine |
Douglas J. Luckerman, Lexington, MA, Gregory P. Dorr, Farrell, Rosenblatt & Russell, Nathaniel M., Rosenblatt, Farrell, Rosenblatt & Russell, Bangor, ME, for Aroostook Band of Micmacs, Plaintiff.
Paul Stern, Assistant Attorney General, Christopher C. Taub, David G. Webbert, Johnson & Webbert, LLP, Matthew Sherburne Keegan, Johnson & Webbert, LLP, Augusta, ME, for Executive Director, ME Human Rights Commission, Members, ME Human Rights Commission, Lisa Gardiner, Tammy Condon, Beverly Ayoob, Defendants.
This is an action by the Aroostook Band of Micmacs seeking relief in this federal forum in the hopes of forestalling current and future investigations and complaints against the Band under the Maine Human Rights Act and the Maine Whistle Blower Protection Act. The Executive Director and the Members of the Maine Human Rights Commission, and three former employees of the Band2 are the defendants. The parties have filed cross-motions for summary judgment (Docket Nos. 36, 40, 41) and on January 23, 2004, I heard oral argument by the Band and the Commission defendants. Because I conclude that this Court does not have jurisdiction over this controversy, I DISMISS this action based upon lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The Band characterizes this as a case under federal law about whether Congress has granted the State of Maine authority over the Band's sovereign government. (Pl.'s Mot. Summ. J. at 1.) They view the Commission's investigation of the Band with respect to the discrimination complaints of the three individual defendants as an impermissible impingement of their sovereignty in violation of the Band's federal rights. Key to the Band's paradigm is the Band's contention that, because the Band never followed through with written certification of its agreement to the Maine Micmac Settlement Act (MMA), 30 M.R.S.A. § 7201 et seq., the Maine settlement act is a nullity.3 The status of the Band's sovereignty, the Band believes, requires an interpretation of the effect on the Band of a trio of pre and post MMA statutes: the Maine Implementing Act (MIA), 30 M.R.S.A. § 6201 et seq., the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA), 25 U.S.C. §§ 1721 et seq., and the Aroostook Band of Micmacs Settlement Act (ABMSA), 25 U.S.C. § 1721 note. Ultimately, the Band would like the Court to reach the conclusion that the interplay of these acts vis-à-vis the Band has left its inherent tribal sovereignty unscathed and that the Congress has not delegated any of its Constitutional and Statutory authority over the Band to the State of Maine.4
The defendants claim that what really is at issue between the parties is whether the Band is subject to the anti-discrimination provisions of the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA) and the Maine Whistleblowers' Protection Act (MWPA) vis-à-vis the termination of the three employee defendants. (Defs.' Mot. Summ. J. at 1.) And, although they would just as soon have the court reach the merits of this lawsuit, the defendants are of the view that the Band is doing little else than raising in this federal suit defenses to the state MHRA and MWPA actions and that, as such, their claims do not "arise under" federal law when analyzed under the well-pleaded complaint rule. (Id. at 3-13.)
With some reluctance I accept the State's somewhat equivocal invitation to view the Band's complaint through the prism of the well-pleaded complaint rule; I must, as it is a question of jurisdiction that I have an obligation to decide, irrespective of the parties' positions on the matter. See American Policyholders Ins. Co. v. Nyacol Prods., Inc., 989 F.2d 1256, 1258 (1st Cir.1993) ( ); Narragansett Indian Tribe R.I. v. Rhode Island, 296 F.Supp.2d 153, 159 (D.R.I.2003) (); Wiener v. Wampanoag Aquinnah Shellfish Hatchery Corp., 223 F.Supp.2d 346, 350 n. 6 (D.Mass.2002) ().
The Band is seeking declaratory relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201, which allows for declaratory relief in "a case of actual controversy" within this Court's jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 2201(a). See also Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians v. Houlton, 950 F.Supp. 408, 410 (D.Me.1996) ().
Section 1331 of title 28 provides that this Court "shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1331 (emphasis added). Also at play in this case is § 1362, of title 28 which endows the district courts with "original jurisdiction of all civil actions, brought by any Indian tribe or band with a governing body duly recognized by the Secretary of the Interior, wherein the matter in controversy arises under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States." 28 U.S.C. § 1362 (emphasis added).
Although the phrase "arising under" seems simple enough on the surface, untangling the strands of precedent that have analyzed the concept in the framework of the well-pleaded complaint rule is hardly a facile undertaking, see Templeton Bd. Sewer Comm'rs. v. American Tissue Mills Mass., Inc., 352 F.3d 33, 36 (1st Cir.2003) (), even with the assistance of the very able briefing and oral argument by the attorneys in this case. I have heeded each side's argument and studied the proffered precedents and I keep coming back around to a conviction that the conclusion to the jurisdictional dispute arrived at by (then Chief) Judge Homby in his two decisions on the issue, Penobscot Nation v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., 106 F.Supp.2d 81 (D.Me.2000) (Penobscot Nation I) and 116 F.Supp.2d 201 (2000) (Penobscot Nation II) (), is the conclusion I must arrive at in this case.5
The District Court litigation in Penobscot Nation arose when three paper companies threatened to initiate state court suit(s) against the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe to compel them to turn over certain documents under the Maine Freedom of Access Act. Penobscot Nation I, 106 F.Supp.2d at 82. The Tribes responded to the notice of claim by filing a federal law3uit against the wannabe state court plaintiffs seeking an injunction against any state court lawsuit and a declaratory judgment that the Maine Freedom of Access Act violated the Tribes' federal right to be free of such state regulation. Id.
Drawing extensively from the same United States Supreme Court precedent batted about by these parties, the § 1331 "arising under" discussion in Penobscot Nation I is as follows:
"Arising under" has been narrowly interpreted: when a plaintiff has a claim created by state law and a defendant has a federal defense, the Supreme Court has made clear that the lawsuit does not "arise under" federal law and that there is no general federal question jurisdiction. See Franchise Tax Bd. of State of California v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust, 463 U.S. 1, 9-12, 103 S.Ct. 2841, 77 L.Ed.2d 420 (1983). This has come to be known as the "well-pleaded complaint rule," "the basic principle marking the boundaries of the federal question jurisdiction of the federal district courts." Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Taylor, 481 U.S. 58, 63, 107 S.Ct. 1542, 95 L.Ed.2d 55 (1987); see also American Nat. Red Cross v. S.G., 505 U.S. 247, 258, 112 S.Ct. 2465, 120 L.Ed.2d 201 (1992) () (citations omitted). As a result, the plaintiff cannot file the case in federal court, see, e.g., Iowa Management & Consultants, Inc. v. Sac & Fox Tribe, 207 F.3d 488, 489 (8th Cir.2000); TTEA v. Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo, 181 F.3d 676, 681 (5th Cir.1999), and the defendant cannot remove it to federal court, see Oklahoma Tax Com'n v. Graham, 489 U.S. 838, 840-41, 109 S.Ct. 1519, 103 L.Ed.2d 924 (per curiam).
The answer is the same if the defendant acts first and brings a declaratory judgment action in federal court seeking a declaration that its federal defense trumps the plaintiff's state law claim. Although the defendant has thereby become the plaintiff and ostensibly has pleaded a claim that is federal, there still is no federal jurisdiction. Specifically, in 1983 the United States Supreme Court announced that a 1950 decision (Skelly Oil Co. v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 339 U.S. 667, 70 S.Ct. 876, 94 L.Ed. 1194) "has come to stand for the proposition that `if, but for the availability of the declaratory judgment procedure, the federal claim would arise only as a defense to a state created action, jurisdiction is lacking.'" Franchise Tax Bd., 463 U.S. at 16, 103 S.Ct. 2841 (). This statement made definitive what had been suggested in Public Service Commission v. Wycoff Co., 344 U.S. 237, 73 S.Ct. 236, 97 L.Ed. 291 (1952):
Where the complaint in an action for declaratory judgment seeks in essence to assert a defense to an impending or threatened state court action, it is the character of...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Aroostook Band of Micmacs v. Ryan
...district court ruled that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the complaint. See Aroostook Band of Micmacs v. Exec. Dir. Me. Human Rights Comm'n, 307 F.Supp.2d 95, 96 (D.Me.2004) ("Micmacs"). Specifically, the district court concluded that Counts I and II did not raise questions "ari......
-
Aroostook Band of Micmacs v. Ryan
...dismissed all claims for lack of federal jurisdiction under Rule 12(h)(3). See Aroostook Band of Micmacs v. Executive Dir. Me. Human Rights Comm'n, 307 F.Supp.2d 95, 96 (D.Me.2004) ("Aroostook I"). A panel of this court reversed on the grounds that first four claims were properly brought in......
-
Aroostook Bank of Micmacs v. Ryan, No. CIV.03-24-B-K.
...in 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(b) and that, therefore, Title VII is not applicable to it. In Aroostook Band of Micmacs v. Executive Director Maine Human Rights Commission, 307 F.Supp.2d 95, 106-07 (D.Me. 2004) I "apparently" concluded that there was no case and controversy apropos this count because ......