Norton

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION AND ORDER

Plaintiff card rooms and charities (“plaintiffs”) bring suit against the Secretary of the Interior and the Pacific Regional Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (collectively, “Secretary”). The City of San Pablo (“City”) and the Lytton Ranche-ría of California (“Lytton” or “the Lyt-tons”) are defendants in intervention. Plaintiffs seek a preliminary injunction to prevent the Secretary from taking certain land into trust for Lytton located in San Pablo, California. Plaintiffs contend that Lytton’s plan to conduct class II tribal gaming on the trust site would violate federal law relating to Indian gaming and deny plaintiffs equal protection under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. Defendants move to dismiss the action. The main bulk of the briefing on both motions is addressed to whether Lytton properly has been recognized as a tribe by either the Secretary or the Congress. As will be explained, this issue cannot and need not be resolved on the present record and motions.

I. Facts and Procedural History

In 1926, the United States purchased fifty acres of land located north of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County for the use of homeless Indians.…