How to resolve AdBlock issue? Judge Trevor McFadden handed down the decision on April 23 in the Scotts Valley Pomo’s lawsuit against the Department of the Interior.
“This ruling gives us momentum and keeps distractions out of court,” said Scotts Valley Tribal Chairman Shawn Davis. “Now we will keep pressing forward to defend our land and our rights. We are moving forward to building economic opportunities for our members and the entire Vallejo community.”
In January, the Department of Interior, while still under the Biden Administration, approved the Lakeport-based Scotts Valley Pomo’s fee-to-trust proposal for a $700 million, 400,000-square-foot mega casino complex, along with 24 homes and an administrative building, on a 128-acre site near I-80 and Highway 37.
That approval came over the objections of tribes and other community leaders and residents in and around Vallejo.
Among those opposing the casino plan are the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, which owns Cache Creek Casino in Yolo County, and the Kletsel Dehe Band of Wintun Indians, a nongaming tribe based in Colusa County.
Those two tribes filed a lawsuit on March 24 against the Department of the Interior, challenging the decision to allow the casino to go forward.
Days later, the Department of Interior informed Scotts Valley in a letter that it was rescinding the gaming eligibility determination granted to the tribe under the Biden Administration in January in order for it to be reconsidered.
That, in turn, led to Scotts Valley suing the Department of the Interior on April 1, claiming that the agency’s decision to rescind the determination violates federal law and trust obligations, and was motivated by “unfounded opposition from competitors.”
As the different cases move forward, the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Kletsel Dehe Wintun Nation and United Auburn Indian Community had sought to intervene in Scotts Valley’s lawsuit against the government.
Judge McFadden, who also is presiding over the lawsuit filed by the Yocha Dehe and Kletsel Dehe, denied the three tribes’ efforts to intervene, deciding they lacked legal standing in the matter.
Additionally, McFadden found that adding more parties “would unduly delay consideration here by tangling a web of unnecessary legal problems.”
The judge said that “nearly tripling the number of parties involved and bloating the briefing with layers of tangential issues” would cause challenges, especially in light of Scott Valley’s pending emergency motion for injunctive relief and the Department of the Interior’s “understandable claim that it would struggle to keep to the expedited brief schedule should additional parties be added.”
McFadden also noted that the interventor tribes “have filed related cases and they will have their turn to raise concerns in their own cases. For now, fairness to the existing parties in this case counsels against more chefs in the kitchen. The proposed intervenors are, however, welcome to file amicus briefs.”
Those briefs are due later in May, according to court records.
“We appreciate Judge McFadden’s invitation to file a friend-of-the-court brief and we look forward to providing the court with the benefit of Yocha Dehe’s perspective,” said Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation Chairman Anthony Roberts.
Scotts Valley said it will continue to pursue its claims “to restore certainty and fairness to the federal decision-making process and secure long-promised opportunities for self-determination and economic growth.”
That tribe said a decision in its case against the Department of the Interior could come as early as May.
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