Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma v. State of Okl. ex rel. Thompson

Citation874 F.2d 709
Decision Date03 May 1989
Docket NumberNo. 86-1885,SENECA-CAYUGA,86-1885
PartiesTRIBE OF OKLAHOMA, an organized Tribe of Indians, as Recognized Under and by the Laws of the United States, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. STATE OF OKLAHOMA ex rel. David L. THOMPSON, the duly elected District Attorney of Ottawa County, Oklahoma, Bob Sills, the duly elected Sheriff of Ottawa County, Oklahoma; Jon D. Douthitt, Associate District Judge for the 13th Judicial Administrative District of Oklahoma, Defendants-Appellants. QUAPAW TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA, a Federally recognized Indian Tribe; Jesse McKibben, Chairman of Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. STATE OF OKLAHOMA ex rel. David L. THOMPSON, District Attorney of Ottawa County, Morland T. Barton, Assistant District Attorney of Ottawa County; Bob Sills, the duly elected Sheriff of Ottawa County, Oklahoma; Jon D. Douthitt, Judge of the District Court of Ottawa County, Defendants-Appellants.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit)

David A. Thompson, Dist. Atty. (Thomas H. May, Dist. Atty. and Morland T. Barton, Asst. Dist. Atty., with him on the briefs), Miami, Okl., for defendants-appellants.

Ben Loring, Hall, Loring & Smith, P.C. of Miami, Okl., for plaintiff-appellee Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma.

John H. Charloe, of Tulsa, Okl., for plaintiff-appellee Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma and Jesse McKibben.

Before SEYMOUR and BARRETT, Circuit Judges, and BROWN *, District Judge.

SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge.

The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma are federally recognized Indian tribes that operate high-stakes bingo games on trust land. They brought this action to enjoin a pending state court suit in which the State of Oklahoma sought to enjoin operation of the bingo games. The federal court held that it was not required to abstain, and issued a preliminary injunction. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

In 1983, the State of Oklahoma sued the Seneca-Cayuga and Quapaw Tribes in separate actions in state court seeking to enjoin the operation of Tribal bingo games, which violate the gaming laws of the state, see Okla.Stat.Ann. tit. 21, Secs. 995.1-18 (1981). Shortly thereafter, the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe filed suit in federal court and was granted a preliminary injunction restraining state officials from enforcing state gaming laws on Indian land. The state district court subsequently dismissed the state suits against both Tribes for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe voluntarily dismissed the federal action. In July 1985, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma reversed the lower state court, holding that the actions were not barred by the Tribes' sovereign immunity and remanding for further findings on other issues. State ex rel. May v. Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, 711 P.2d 77 (Okla.1985) (Seneca-Cayuga I ).

The Tribes brought the present action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the State of Oklahoma and the state trial judge, the Honorable Jon D. Douthitt. The parties entered into extensive stipulations of fact, which are set forth briefly as follows. The bingo operations at issue are held in buildings used exclusively for bingo, and located on land held in trust for the Tribes. The players are primarily non-Indians. All or most of the games are in violation of state statutes, and no federal or state taxes are withheld from the prizes. The bingo games provide employment for Tribal members, and income which is used to fund Tribal health and welfare programs.

The district court denied a motion by the State asking it to abstain from exercising its jurisdiction because of the pending state action. Based on the stipulations, the court then enjoined Judge Douthitt from proceeding with the state court suit between the State and the Tribes, and enjoined the State from interfering with the operation of the bingo games.

The State has appealed this preliminary injunction under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1292(a)(1) (1982). Its primary argument for reversal is that the district court should have abstained under the doctrine of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and its progeny. In assessing this contention, we must consider California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202, 107 S.Ct. 1083, 94 L.Ed.2d 244 (1987), issued after the district court opinion in this case, which addresses the conflict between a tribe's right to operate bingo games and a state's right to control gambling.

II. YOUNGER ABSTENTION

Federal courts have a "virtually unflagging obligation" to exercise the jurisdiction granted them by Congress. See Colorado River Water Conservation Dist. v. United States, 424 U.S. 800, 817, 96 S.Ct. 1236, 1246, 47 L.Ed.2d 483 (1976). As courts within a federalist system, however, they are on rare occasions permitted or required not to exercise their jurisdiction where such inaction is necessary to avoid undue interference with states' conduct of their own affairs. See id. at 813-18, 96 S.Ct. at 1244-47. The Younger doctrine sets forth principles for determining when it is appropriate to abstain from interfering with a state judicial proceeding. See Younger, 401 U.S. at 45, 91 S.Ct. at 751 ("the normal thing to do when federal courts are asked to enjoin pending state proceedings in state courts is not to issue such injunctions").

Younger abstention requires an ongoing state judicial (or in a proper case administrative) proceeding, the presence of an important state interest, and an adequate opportunity to raise federal claims in the state proceedings. See Middlesex County Ethics Comm. v. Garden State Bar Ass'n, 457 U.S. 423, 432, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 2521, 73 L.Ed.2d 116 (1982). Each of these conditions must be satisfied before Younger abstention is warranted. Id. at 432, 102 S.Ct. at 2521. Younger abstention is not discretionary once the above conditions are met, see Colorado River, 424 U.S. at 817 n. 22, 96 S.Ct. at 1246 n. 22, absent extraordinary circumstances that render a state court unable to give state litigants a full and fair hearing on their federal claims, 1 see Trainor v. Hernandez, 431 U.S. 434, 442 n. 7, 97 S.Ct. 1911, 1917 n. 7, 52 L.Ed.2d 486 (1977) (quoting Kugler v. Helfant, 421 U.S. 117, 124-25, 95 S.Ct. 1524, 1530-31, 44 L.Ed.2d 15 (1975)); Younger, 401 U.S. at 53, 91 S.Ct. at 754-55. Accordingly, our review is de novo. Accord Fresh Int'l Corp. v. Agricultural Labor Relations Bd., 805 F.2d 1353, 1356 & n. 2 (9th Cir.1986).

In this case, there is clearly an ongoing state judicial proceeding. Litigation in the state system has already reached the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, see Seneca-Cayuga I, 711 P.2d 77, and is now on remand in the state trial court. We therefore turn to the second Younger requirement, the necessity that the state proceeding implicate an important state interest. In view of our conclusion below that this element is lacking, we need not address the adequacy of the opportunity to raise the federal claim in state court.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court identified two state interests in the regulation of high-stakes bingo games: preventing the infiltration of organized crime, and protecting the State's economy and tax base. Seneca-Cayuga, 711 P.2d at 91. These are

undoubtedly legitimate state concerns. This case, however, concerns activities that are necessarily primarily of federal interest. Moreover, the Tribes have a claim to sovereign immunity which shields them from suit in state court. We consider each of these factors in turn in assessing the magnitude of the state's interests at stake in this case.

A. Primacy of Federal Interest

The Constitution grants to Congress the power "To regulate Commerce ... with the Indian Tribes." U.S. Const. art. I, Sec. 8, cl. 3. The treaties and other agreements that govern the relationship between the Indians and other Americans are part of "the supreme Law of the Land." Id. art. VI, cl. 2. It is Congress that has set the terms under which modern American Indians live, the United States Supreme Court that has shaped the interpretation of those terms, and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs that has managed the day-to-day interactions with the Tribes. Indeed, Oklahoma, like many other states, was required to disclaim jurisdiction over Indians at statehood. See Oklahoma Enabling Act, ch. 3335, Sec. 3, 34 Stat. 267, 270 (1906); Enabling Act Amendment, ch. 2911, 34 Stat. 1286 (1907); see generally Indian Country, U.S.A., Inc. v. Okla. Tax Comm'n., 829 F.2d 967, 976-81 (10th Cir.1987) (citing Sec. 1 of the Oklahoma Enabling Act and interpreting it as a general reservation of federal and tribal jurisdiction over Indians and their lands and property), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2870, 101 L.Ed.2d 2906 (1988). 2

This is not to say that states have not exercised authority over reservation land, especially over non-Indians on such land. Nor is it to say that states have no right to exercise authority over activities in Indian Country. See California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202, 107 S.Ct. 1083, 1091, 94 L.Ed.2d 244 (1987) (no per se rule precluding state jurisdiction over tribes and tribal members in the absence of express congressional consent); Rice v. Rehner, 463 U.S. 713, 103 S.Ct. 3291, 77 L.Ed.2d 961 (1983) (state may require liquor license for on-reservation sale of liquor for off-premises consumption); Moe v. Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 425 U.S. 463, 96 S.Ct. 1634, 48 L.Ed.2d 96 (1976) (state may tax on-reservation sale of cigarettes to non-Indians); Seneca-Cayuga I, 711 P.2d at 85 n. 41 In this particular case, the Indian bingo games under attack by the State promote the important congressional policy of encouraging tribal self-sufficiency and economic development. 3 Similar games not only have been approved by the Department of the Interior and other Cabinet departments, they have been actively developed. See Cabazon, 107 S.Ct. at 1092-93. The Tribes' bingo games thus manifest both...

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