Locke
Confederated Tribes & Bands of Yakama Indian Nation v. Locke
Opinion
Lead Opinion
Canby, J.
This appeal attempts to raise the question whether the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (“IGRA”), 25 U.S.C. §§ 2701-21 , provides an avenue by which an Indian tribe may exclude a state lottery from its reservation. We do not reach that question, however, because we conclude that the Eleventh Amendment renders the defendants, the State of Washington and its governor, immune from this suit in federal court without their consent.
BACKGROUND
The Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Indian Nation (“the Tribe”) brought this action in the district court against the State of Washington and its governor in 1995. The complaint set forth three claims. Two of them sought to compel the State and the governor to negotiate a tribal-state gaming compact authorizing the Tribe to conduct Class III 2 gaming operations on its reservation. See IGRA, § 2710(d)(7). The remaining claim sought damages and other appropriate relief for the State’s operation of the state lottery on the reservation, an operation that the Tribe asserted to be in violation of IGRA, § 2710(d)(1).
Events then overtook the litigation. The Supreme Court of the United States decided Seminole Tribe v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44 , 116…