Opinion ID: 2771282
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Regulation is Reasonable

Text: In promulgating the regulation at issue here, the Secretary was implementing the restored lands exception to the general statutory ban on tribes using land acquired after IGRA for gaming. The restored lands exception therefore must be read in the context of IGRA’s general prohibition against gaming 10 REDDING RANCHERIA V. JEWELL on lands acquired after 1988. The exception was not intended to give restored tribes an open-ended license to game on newly acquired lands. Rather, its purpose was to promote parity between established tribes, which had substantial land holdings at the time of IGRA’s passage, and restored tribes, which did not. See City of Roseville, 348 F.3d at 1030. In administering the restored lands exception, the Secretary needs to ensure that tribes do not take advantage of the exception to expand gaming operations unduly and to the detriment of other tribes’ gaming operations. To that end, the Secretary promulgated a series of requirements a tribe must satisfy in order to demonstrate that newly acquired lands are part of the effort to restore a reservation and are therefore eligible for gaming. To benefit from the restored lands exception, a tribe must establish a “modern,” “historical,” and “temporal” connection to tribal land. 25 C.F.R. § 292.12. Because these factors are general, the regulation further defines each. The “modern” connection means that the land is within the state or states in which the tribe is currently located and is, by at least one of several measures prescribed by the regulation, in close proximity to the tribe’s other lands. 25 C.F.R. § 292.12(a). The Secretary concluded that the Tribe satisfied this requirement. The Secretary also concluded that the Tribe satisfied the “historical” connection under 25 C.F.R. § 292.12(b) because the land in question is next to historic lands. In order to establish a “temporal connection,” the tribe must demonstrate either (1) that the land was part of the tribe’s first request for newly acquired lands after being restored to federal recognition, or (2) that it submitted an REDDING RANCHERIA V. JEWELL 11 application to take the land into trust within 25 years after being restored, and that it is not currently gaming on other lands. Id. § 292.12(c). As the Secretary stated in the preamble to 25 C.F.R. § 212(c), “the temporal limitation effectuates IGRA’s balancing of the gaming interests of newly acknowledged and/or restored tribes with the interests of nearby tribes and the surrounding community.” 73 Fed. Reg. 29,367. In this way, the regulation strikes a balance between allowing restored tribes to game on newly acquired lands, while at the same time protecting the interests of established tribes. Section 292.12(c) allows a tribe to game on any lands that were acquired as part of its first request for lands after regaining federal recognition, but it limits gaming on lands acquired as part of subsequent requests. After a tribe’s first request for land is granted, it can only game on newly acquired lands if it requests that these lands be taken into trust within 25 years of restoration, and it is not already gaming elsewhere. 25 C.F.R. § 292.12(c)(2). As a result, once a restored tribe builds a casino, it cannot build additional casinos on newly acquired lands. Without this limitation, restored tribes would be able to expand their gaming operations indefinitely. This would give them an unfair advantage over established tribes who generally cannot game on any lands acquired after IGRA was passed. 25 U.S.C. § 2719(a). The Tribe contends that the limitation is nonetheless unreasonable because it is not contained in the statute. The statute, of course, merely creates an exception for restored lands, without attempting to define the term or dictate how it should be administered. Congress authorized the Secretary to promulgate regulations to achieve those purposes, as is 12 REDDING RANCHERIA V. JEWELL standard practice in today’s understanding of administrative law. Thus an agency charged with administering a statute has the power to make rules “to fill any gap left, implicitly or explicitly, by Congress.” Morton v. Ruiz, 415 U.S. 199, 231 (1974). The Administrative Procedure Act accordingly sets forth procedures by which agencies promulgate rules “to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy.” 5 U.S.C. § 551(4). When an agency uses this rule making authority to define a general or ambiguous provision of a statute, its interpretation is owed deference so long as it is reasonable. United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218, 229 (2001) (citing Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 845 (1984)). We conclude that the Secretary reasonably implemented the restored lands exception, to limit the extent to which a restored tribe may operate gaming facilities on restored land, in order to ensure parity between restored and established tribes. There is nothing unreasonable about the regulation’s intent to prevent restored tribes from acquiring additional land to operate multiple gaming operations.