Opinion ID: 1160930
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Does the Model Compact of Proposition 5 Violate the California Constitution?

Text: Do the California Constitution's prohibitions of legislative authorization of gambling bar the state from entering into the model tribal/state compact in accordance with IGRA, as the majority concludes? The answer is no. Three state constitutional provisions found in section 19 of article IV of the California Constitution are pertinent. Subdivision (a) of article IV, section 19 provides: The Legislature has no power to authorize lotteries and shall prohibit the sale of lottery tickets in the State. Subdivision (d) of article IV, section 19 qualifies the lottery ban by authorizing a state lottery: Notwithstanding subdivision (a), there is authorized the establishment of a California State Lottery. Subdivision (e) of article IV, section 19 provides: The Legislature has no power to authorize, and shall prohibit casinos of the type currently operating in Nevada and New Jersey. By entering into a tribal/state compact the state does not authorize lotteries or other forms of gambling. A state may only authorize, or prohibit, acts that are within the limits of its sovereignty. For the reasons stated above, it is utterly beyond the sovereign power of California to authorize or prohibit gambling on Indian lands within the state. California can no more authorize gambling on Indian lands than it can authorize gambling in another state. Section 19 of article IV of the California Constitution removes from the Legislature any power that the Legislature would otherwise have to authorize or prohibit lotteries or gambling casinos. For Indian gambling, however, the Legislature would not otherwise have the power to authorize or prohibit lotteries or gambling casinos because federal law completely preempts the field of Indian gambling and it is federal law, not state law, that authorizes or prohibits Indian gambling. Although the state may facilitate Indian gambling by negotiating and entering into a compact, doing so does not authorize Indian gambling in the sense of granting permission for an act the state otherwise has the power to prohibit. Nor does a state's failure to enter into a compact have the effect of prohibiting Indian gambling, for in the absence of a compact IGRA directs the Secretary of the Interior to establish procedures governing tribal gambling. The Legislature or, in this case, the voters, cannot sensibly be described as authorizing something they lack the power to prohibit. To be sure, as the majority notes, the model compact purports to authorize tribes to engage in certain forms of class III gaming. (Gov.Code, § 98004, Tribal-State Gaming Compact, § 4.1.) Whether a tribe is authorized to engage in class III gaming, however, is a question of federal, not state, law. Whatever the compact may say, it cannot authorize a tribe to engage in class III gaming. For example, if the state otherwise completely prohibits a form of class III gaming, a compact purporting to authorize a tribe to engage in that form of gambling would be ineffectual, for condition (B) of section 2710(d)(1) would prohibit the tribe as a matter of federal law from offering that form of gambling. [1] The parallel case of an interstate compact regulating gambling in another state also illustrates why a tribal/state gambling compact does not unconstitutionally authorize gambling. To further California's interests, the Legislature has entered into a compact with the neighboring State of Nevada, the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact, regulating the number and size of gaming facilities located in Nevada within the Lake Tahoe Basin. (Gov.Code, § 66801, Tahoe Regional Planning Compact, art. VI, §§ (d), (f).) That compact has never been considered to be an act by the Legislature authorizing casinos within the meaning of the term authorize as used in section 19 of article IV of the California Constitution. Indeed, if any act of the State of California may be properly characterized as authorizing Indian gambling, it is the enactment of the constitutional provisions and statutes creating the California state lottery and horse race wagering. (Cal. Const., art. IV, § 19, subds.(b), (d).) These statutes authorizing forms of class III gambling trigger by force of federal law the collateral consequence of authorizing Indian tribes to engage in the same forms of gambling. But these statutes are constitutionally permitted; therefore, if they are the act of authorization of tribal gambling there is nothing unconstitutional about the authorization. Accordingly, I conclude that the act of entering into a tribal compact pursuant to IGRA is not the authorization of gambling within the meaning of section 19 of article IV of the California Constitution, for under IGRA a state lacks the power either to authorize or prohibit a tribe from engaging in gambling. The next question is whether the forms of gambling addressed by Proposition 5's model compact are authorized by IGRA as a matter of federal law.