WASHINGTON (CN) — Taking up whether the Trump administration can revoke reservation status for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe that welcomed the pilgrims in 1620, a federal judge lashed out Wednesday over what he said was the most poorly written government document he had ever read.
The legal battle stems from claims by the Mashpee Wampanoag that the Department of the Interior overlooked key evidence when it ordered the tribe’s 321 acres be taken out of trust, an action that could mean the loss of land and associated tax benefits.
The tribe struck a deal with the city of Taunton to build a $1 billion casino, only to face a lawsuit from nearby residents who opposed the plan.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the Interior Department memo released March 5 that reversed the government's acquisition of land in trust for certain tribes was one of the worst written documents he has read, with grammar and spelling errors throughout.
“And you can tell your client that. It’s a joke,” Friedman told the government after it refused during the teleconference hearing to commit to reconsider the tribe’s status retroactively under recently rescinded guidance.
“I don’t know how anyone could take that as guidance because it’s incomprehensible and so convoluted that it couldn’t guide any lawyer in the field. And it took three lawyers from Interior to write that — thing,” Friedman added, referring to the new agency guidance that will decide the fate of the Mashpee Wampanoag if the judge rules in the tribe’s favor and remands the case.
The government denies wrongdoing, arguing the Mashpee Wampanoag failed to meet the new Trump administration standard for tribes to hold land in trust by demonstrating they were under federal jurisdiction in 1934 when Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act.
The Interior Department in 2018 rolled back an Obama-era policy that sought to loosely interpret the Supreme Court ruling in Carcieri v. Salazar, after the past administration found the phrase "under federal jurisdiction" to be ambiguous and interpreted it to mean any actions sufficient to establish the government was generally acting with authority over a tribe, regardless of whether it was granted official status in 1934.
In March, the tribe was given notice by the Interior Department that its land would be removed from trust status.
The Mashpee Wampanoag only received federal recognition as a tribe in 2007, but Tami Lyn Azorsky argued Wednesday for the tribe that there is sufficient implicit evidence that it had operated under the status long before.
The attorney, of Dentons LLP, said the Interior Department has an obligation to protect the Mashpee Wampanoag.
“This rush to take the land out of trust when there isn’t even a procedure to do so…it doesn’t make sense.” Azorsky said. The attorney explained that the agency has no regulations to fall back on to carry out the controversial plan.
Filed in 2018, the case argued Wednesday originally challenged the government finding the Mashpee Wampanoag did not meet the Obama-era standard to be a federally recognized tribe.
But the tribe looked to the court in March to block the Interior Department from revoking reservation status, after it issued the new agency guidance that it claims did not trigger the decision. The government agreed to a preliminary injunction.
Drawing on reports that harkened back centuries, Azorsky argued that the United States has long wielded authority over the tribe that shared in the first Thanksgiving with settlers on land that would later become Massachusetts.
The tribe is concerned about who will oversee health and human services for its members if it loses the right to self-govern, the attorney explained. Among those concerns are teacher qualifications for the language immersion school on the reservation and zoning restrictions for tribe member housing.