Opinion ID: 202707
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: ABMSA as a Repeal of MICSA: The Aroostook Band's Position

Text: 89 The Aroostook Band makes another argument, designed to advance its claim that ABMSA §§ 6(a) and/or 7(a) give it an exemption from state employment laws. It points to the fact that two ABMSA sections, 6(b) and 8(a), specifically invoke parts of MICSA as applicable to the Aroostook Band. Section 1725(a) is not one of the specifically invoked provisions. The Aroostook Band posits that if Congress had intended § 1725(a) to apply to it as well, then ABMSA would have said so. Otherwise, the Aroostook Band reasons, the specific inclusions in §§ 6(b) and 8(a) would be meaningless surplusage. 24 90 At its core, this is an argument about congressional intent, and it is one that we reject. Courts rarely presume that a statute's failure to invoke a prior statute will reflect an intent to repeal, see Morton, 417 U.S. at 549-50, 94 S.Ct. 2474, although in an appropriate case this rule can be overcome by the Indian canons of construction, see, e.g., Montana v. Blackfeet Tribe of Indians, 471 U.S. 759, 766, 105 S.Ct. 2399, 85 L.Ed.2d 753 (1985). In any event, ABMSA's failure to reference MICSA's § 1725(a), or to repeat that section's language, is easily explained: Congress likely saw no need to do so in light of both MICSA and the state Micmac Act. ABMSA clearly contemplates that the state Micmac Act will have effect. See ABMSA § 6(d) (consenting to amendments to that law). And the state Micmac Act contains language nearly identical to MICSA's § 1725(a). 25 The Aroostook Band's reading is implausible. 91 There is another possible explanation for the failure to reference § 1725(a), but it is also detrimental to the Aroostook Band's argument. The two ABMSA provisions that the Aroostook Band cites for their explicit references to MICSA, §§ 6(b) and 8(a), do not deal with the application of Maine law. Instead, both deal with the application of federal law. That ABMSA did not specifically repeat § 1725(a) may simply reflect this differing subject matter. 92