Opinion ID: 186599
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Lawfulness of Congress's Delegation Under the Restoration Act

Text: 54 In a final attempt to derail the Pokagon Band's pursuit of its gaming resort, TOMAC argues that § 6 of the Restoration Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1300j-5, constitutes an unlawful delegation of power from Congress to the Secretary. That section provides: 55 The Band's tribal land shall consist of all real property, including the land upon which the Tribal Hall is situated, now or on and after September 21, 1994, held by, or in trust for, the Band. The Secretary shall acquire real property for the Band. Any such real property shall be taken by the Secretary in the name of the United States in trust for the benefit of the Band and shall become part of the Band's reservation. 56 25 U.S.C. § 1300j-5. TOMAC contends that the Secretary's authority is boundless, because the statute allows her to acquire land for the tribe without constraint. This is a specious argument. When § 1300j-5 is read in light of its clear purpose, the history of the Tribe, and the Restoration Act as a whole, it is clear that Congress set forth appropriate boundaries to guide the Secretary in her acquisition of land in trust for the Tribe. 57 In a nondelegation challenge, the test is whether Congress has set forth `an intelligible principle to which the person or body authorized to [act] is directed to conform.' Am. Trucking II, 531 U.S. at 472, 121 S.Ct. 903 (quoting J.W. Hampton, Jr., & Co. v. United States, 276 U.S. 394, 409, 48 S.Ct. 348, 72 L.Ed. 624 (1928)) (alteration in Am. Trucking II ). The Supreme Court has explained that the general policy and boundaries of a delegation need not be tested in isolation. Am. Power & Light Co. v. SEC, 329 U.S. 90, 104, 67 S.Ct. 133, 91 L.Ed. 103 (1946). Instead, the statutory language may derive content from the purpose of the Act, its factual background and the statutory context in which they appear. Id. 58 The trust acquisition direction in § 1300j-5 must be read as an integral part of the Restoration Act, in light of the history of the relationship between the United States and the Tribe, and the Restoration Act's express purposes as a whole. The Restoration Act reestablishes the Pokagon Band as a federally recognized Indian tribe and its primary purpose is to allow the Tribe to restore its land base — a reservation — and to exercise jurisdiction on that reservation. See 25 U.S.C. §§ 1300j-5, j-7. The Tribe has existed in the St. Joseph River Valley in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana since at least the early 1600s. The statute restores federal services to the Tribe within a 10-county service area that corresponds to the Tribe's ancestral home. 25 U.S.C. § 1300j-6. We categorically reject the suggestion that the Secretary has been given no direction as to where she is to take land into trust for the Tribe. It is obvious here that the Secretary's delegated authority under § 1300j-5 is cabined by intelligible principles delineating both the area in and the purpose for which the land should be purchased. We therefore find that Congress's delegation to the agency was lawful.