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Menominee Tribe files federal lawsuit over Kenosha casino
Published November 7, 2008 - BizTimes Daily
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The Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Interior after the department rejected the tribe's request to temporarily suspend the federal review of the proposed casino project in Kenosha.
The Menomonee had formally requested last month that the Department of Interior temporarily suspend its review after the tribe said it had learned that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne was preparing looking to reject the long-pending Kenosha application based on his personal opposition to off-reservation gaming.
The tribe asked that further federal review of the Kenosha project be postponed until a new presidential administration takes office in January.
"The department has denied our request. As a result, we are taking stronger action," Lisa Waukau, chair of the tribe, and Laurie Boivin, vice chair, said in a prepared statement today.
The lawsuit alleges that Interior officials have "improperly" changed the rules for approving off-reservation casinos based on Kempthorne's personal views. The suit asks a judge to declare those changes invalid and prevent the department from using them to reject tribe's application.
"The decision to take legal action against the department was difficult, but we believe it is the best opportunity to make this job-creation and economic development plan a reality for our tribe, for Kenosha and for Wisconsin. Our trust application is thorough, well-documented and complete. It has the strong support of the local community and the solid recommendation of the department's professional staff who say it meets every point of law required for approval," Waukau and Boivin said. "The Menominee have worked in good faith with the Department for nearly five years, but the department is not working in good faith with us. Even after we showed how our project fits Secretary Kempthorne's new rules, we learned from his people that it didn't matter, he was going to reject the application anyway. That's illegal, unfair and unacceptable."
The suit was filed in U.S. Eastern District Court of Wisconsin in Green Bay.
