Cent. N.Y. Fair Bus. Ass'n v. Jewell
| Decision Date | 26 March 2015 |
| Docket Number | 6:08-cv-0660 (LEK/DEP) |
| Parties | CENTRAL NEW YORK FAIR BUSINESS ASSOCIATION; CITIZENS EQUAL RIGHTS ALLIANCE; DAVID R. TOWNSEND, New York State Assemblyman; MICHAEL J. HENNESSY, Oneida County Legislator; D. CHAD DAVIS, Oneida County Legislator; and MELVIN L. PHILLIPS, Plaintiffs, v. SALLY M. R. JEWELL, in her official capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior; MICHAEL L. CONNOR, in his official capacity as Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior; ELIZABETH J. KLEIN, in her official capacity as Associate Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior; CHESTER MCGHEE, in his official capacity as Eastern Region Environmental Scientist, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of New York |
Plaintiffs Central New York Fair Business Association ("CNYFBA") and Citizens Equal Rights Alliance ("CERA"); David R. Townsend, a New York State Assemblyman; Michael J. Hennessy and D. Chad Davis, both Oneida County legislators; and Melvin L. Phillips (collectively, "Plaintiffs"), commenced this action to challenge a May 20, 2008, Record of Decision issued by Department of the Interior ("DOI") taking over 13,000 acres of land in Central New York into trust for the benefit of the Oneida Indian Nation of New York ("OIN" or the "Nation"). Compl. ¶ 1. Presently before the Court is Defendants' Motion for summary judgment. Dkt. Nos. 114 ("Motion"); 114-1 ("Memorandum"). Plaintiffs filed a Response and Defendants in turn filed a Reply. Dkt. Nos. 119 ("Response"); 122 ("Reply"). For the following reasons, Defendants' Motion is granted.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ("IRA"), 25 U.S.C.§ 461 et seq., was the centerpiece of New Deal Indian policy, which sought to enable tribes "to interact with and adapt to modern society as a governmental unit," and repudiated an era in which federal Indian policy had encouraged cultural assimilation. F. Cohen, Handbook of Indian Law § 1.05, at 81 (Newton ed. 2012). The IRA ended allotment, see General Allotment Act of 1887, 24 Stat. 388, where tribal lands had been broken up and distributed to individual Indians, and instead "facilitat[ed] tribes' acquisition of additional acreage and repurchase of former tribal domains," Handbook of Indian Law § 1.05, at 81.
To that end, § 5 of the IRA empowers the Secretary of DOI (the "Secretary") to acquire landin trust for Indian tribes, such that the land is exempt from state and local taxation. 25 U.S.C. § 465. A tribe is qualified to have land taken into trust under § 5 if it meet the IRA's definition of "Indian," which includes, inter alia, "all persons of Indian descent who are members of any recognized tribe now under Federal jurisdiction." Id. § 479. DOI has promulgated regulations at 25 C.F.R. Part 151, which establish procedures for the acquisition of land in trust under § 5. These include criteria the Secretary must consider in making an acquisition, depending on whether the acquisition is on-reservation, 25 C.F.R. § 151.10, or off-reservation, id. § 151.11.
"OIN is a federally recognized Indian Tribe and a direct descendant of the Oneida Indian Nation," that historically occupied what is now central New York, although the tribe's land holdings and population have fluctuated significantly over time. City of Sherrill, N.Y. v. Oneida Indian Nation of N.Y., 544 U.S. 197, 203 (2005). On April 4, 2005, OIN submitted a request under § 5 of the IRA to DOI requesting that the Secretary acquire approximately 17,370 acres in Madison County and Oneida County, New York into trust status for OIN.2 Dkt. No. 90-4 ("ROD") at 6. The request comprised properties that were reacquired by OIN in open-market transactions, two centuries after they had last been possessed by the Oneidas. Id. The land is the location of OIN's Turning Stone Resort & Casino ("Turning Stone"), a Class III casino under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act ("IGRA"), 25 U.S.C. §§ 2701 et seq.; various other commercial enterprises, such as gas stations and golf courses; and OIN's government and cultural facilities. ROD at 6. OIN intends to continue existing uses of the land. See id. at 8, 31.
Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq., DOI issued a draft Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") regarding the proposed fee-to-trust request on November 24, 2006. ROD at 6. The purpose of the proposed action was "to help address the Nation's need for cultural and social preservation and expression, political self-determination, self-sufficiency, and economic growth." Id. at 8. Public comments were solicited until February 22, 2007, and public hearings were held on December 14, 2006, and February 6, 2008. Id. at 6-7. DOI issued its final EIS on February 22, 2008. Id. at 7.
In the final EIS, DOI analyzed the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the proposed action—acquiring the full 17,370 acres requested in trust—and eight reasonable alternatives. Id. at 6-7. On March 20, 2008, DOI issued its decision to accept approximately 13,003.89 acres in trust for the Nation. Id. at 7. The selected alternative "reflects the balance of the current and short-term needs of the Nation to reestablish a sovereign homeland and the New York State and local government requests to establish a more contiguous and compact trust land grouping." Id. at 19. Under the selected alternative, 4,284 of the requested acres would not be placed into trust. Id. The selected lands are centered around Turning Stone in Oneida County and OIN's 32-acre territory in Madison County. Id.
Plaintiffs commenced this action on June 21, 2008, under the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 551, et seq.; the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201, 2202; and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985.3 The named Defendants are: Sally M. R. Jewell, United StatesSecretary of the Interior; Michael L. Connor, Deputy Secretary of the Interior; Elizabeth J. Klein, Associate Deputy Secretary of the Interior; Chester McGhee, Eastern Regional Environmental Scientist; and Arthur Raymond Halbritter, as "a real party in interest as the Federally Recognized Leader of the Oneida Indian Nation" (collectively, "Defendants"). Compl. ¶ 23.
Plaintiffs' Complaint raises, inter alia, the following claims: (1) that § 5 of the IRA violates the non-delegation doctrine as applied to New York, and the Secretary's decision to acquire the land in trust was otherwise unauthorized; (2) the Secretary's acquisition of the land violates the 10th Amendment; (3) the Secretary did not appropriately consider the requisite criteria under 25 C.F.R. § 151; (4) the Secretary did not adequately assess the environmental impacts of the acquisition in accordance with NEPA; (5) the acquisition would interfere with the civil rights of persons of Oneida Indian descent in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981; (6) the acquisition constitutes racial discrimination against non-Oneida citizens of Madison and Oneida Counties in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and (7) the acquisition violates the equal protection rights of non-Indian citizens of New York State in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985. See generally Compl.
Defendants moved for partial dismissal of several of Plaintiffs' claims. Dkt. No. 21. Additionally, Defendant Halbritter sought dismissal as a party to the case. Dkt. No. 23. Subsequently, Plaintiffs CNYFBA, CERA, and Hennessy—pursuant to a stipulation and with the Court's approval— submitted an Amended Complaint on May 8, 2009, which challenged a December 30, 2008, decision by the General Services Administration to transfer eighteen acres to DOI to hold in trust for OIN, pursuant to 40 U.S.C. § 523(b)(1). Dkt. No. 58 ("AmendedComplaint"). Plaintiffs Townsend, Davis, and Phillips have proceeded under the original Complaint. Defendants filed a Motion to dismiss the claims as they appeared in the Amended Complaint. Dkt. No. 67.
On March 1, 2010, the Court granted Defendants' Motion for partial dismissal in its entirety, dismissing Plaintiffs' claims under the Tenth Amendment; the non-delegation doctrine; NEPA; 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985; and the IGRA. See generally Dkt. No. 74 ("2010 Memorandum-Decision and Order"). The Court also granted Defendants' Motion for partial dismissal of claims in the Amended Complaint, dismissing Plaintiffs' claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1986; NEPA; and, the challenge to the December 30, 2008, transfer of eighteen acres into trust. Id. at 21-24. Finally, the Court dismissed Defendant Halbritter as a party to the action. Id. at 25-26.
On November 15, 2011, Defendants moved for summary judgment on the remaining claims in Plaintiffs' Complaint and Amended Complaint. Dkt. Nos. 90; 91. The Phillips Plaintiffs also moved for summary judgment on the first claim in the Complaint. Dkt. No. 92. A newly central issue raised in the case was whether OIN was eligible to have land taken into trust under the IRA in light of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, 555 U.S. 379 (2009). In Carcieri, the Supreme Court determined that the word "now" in the definition of "Indian" in the IRA—"all persons of Indian descent who are members of any recognized Indian tribe now under Federal jurisdiction"—meant the date of the IRA's enactment in 1934. Carcieri, 555 U.S. at 381. Thus, to be eligible to have land taken into trust under the IRA, a tribe must have been under federal jurisdiction in 1934. Since Carcieri had not been addressed in the ROD, the Court issued a Memorandum-Decision and Order dated September 24, 2012, denying all motions for summary judgment across the related cases, and remanding to DOI to establish a record and determine in thefirst instance whether OIN was under federal jurisdiction in 1934. Dkt. No. 103.
On February 19, 2014, after the parties had an opportunity to submit evidence for DOI to consider, DOI...
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