Spokespersons for Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton haven’t responded to requests for comment. 25 to the high court.īrant Martin, a Fort Worth-based attorney for the Tiguas, said “we are pleased that the solicitor general of the United States has taken the position that it has,” but declined further comment because the case is ongoing. “That error has impaired the uniformity of a federal regulatory scheme, has uniquely disadvantaged two Indian tribes, and has generated repeated litigation and substantial confusion for nearly three decades,” Acting Solicitor General Brian Fletcher and other Justice Department lawyers wrote in a brief submitted Aug. Now, the Biden administration’s Justice Department says those court rulings were wrongly decided and urges the Supreme Court to lift the legal cloud hanging over the tribes. The Texas state government and the tribes have repeatedly gone to court since 1993 over gambling issues, with the state regularly prevailing since a 1994 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision known as Ysleta I held that federal law prohibited gambling on Tigua (also known as Ysleta del Sur Pueblo) and Alabama-Coushatta land. Justice Department is urging the Supreme Court to reverse decades of court rulings that have said that El Paso’s Tigua tribe and the Alabama-Coushatta of East Texas were illegally offering gambling on their land.
