Tribes fight at Ninth Circuit for land development rights

The Ninth Circuit was asked to consider the Interior Department's role in disputes between two Native American tribes.SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — In January 2025, the Department of the Interior placed lands in Sonoma County wine country into trust for the Koi Nation of Northern California, which intends to build a sprawling casino complex on the 69-acre-parcel.But the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria maintain this transaction for the parcel known as the “Shiloh site” was made in error and argued Tuesday before a Ninth Circuit panel to keep their lawsuit against the department alive.Federated Indians attorney Neal Katyal said the case should be remanded to the Interior Department and go through the entire process of land-into-trust approval again, with a high-ranking official signing off.“Koi’s view would mean a federal agency can make the most massive decisions affecting tribes, including stripping other tribes of their rights, and there’s no judicial review whatsoever,” Katyal said, referring to tribal sovereign immunity, which protects Native American governments from litigation in U.S. and tribal courts.The Koi Nation had asked for federal trust status as a sovereign nation so it could pursue development unencumbered by California county and municipal laws and ordinances.Katyal further argued Koi’s rights “are not destroyed” because it hasn’t begun construction on the casino or started gaming operations and still owns the land which it had initially purchased under private ownership in 2021 from a winery.Currently, the Shiloh site is out of trust, after U.S District Judge Rita Lin found a 2025 land-into-trust approval was signed by an official who lacked the legal authority to approve trust acquisitions.The Interior Department argued that approving trust status is an important agency action it was obliged to perform.“We would urge the court to consider, in crafting it’s opinion, that it’s important to find ways to not expand beyond the scope of where it is already, to avoid a sort of broad worldview where every one of these cases, every trust acquisition decision, is subject to a unilateral veto by an absent tribe or tribal entity,” Department of Justice attorney Daniel Halainen said.Lin, a Joe Biden appointee, had allowed the Koi Nation to intervene in the case in July 2025 but declined to dismiss it outright.Attorney for the Koi Nation, Hagan Scotten told the panel the case shouldn’t have allowed the case to move forward under a public rights exception. The exception can shield suits from dismissal when they seek to vindicate public rights in areas affecting historic preservation or environmental protection.“This court and the Supreme Court have been adamant that that exception cannot apply, where the case threatens to destroy the legal entitlements of the absent party,” Scotten, said. “A tribe’s sovereignty over land, it’s only tribal jurisdiction, is a legal entitlement, and there is no dispute that Graton was trying to destroy that.”Scotten also argued that the Federated Indians had plenty of time to stop the approval before Interior Department to the lands into trust for the Koi Nation. The Federated Indians were previously denied a preliminary injunction for failing to show an immediate threat of irreparable harm if it did.“So, it is your position they had the right then, to raise the issues they are raising now, about this particular piece of land, and they lost?” U.S. District Judge for the District of Arizona Roslyn Silver, a Bill Clinton appointee sitting by designation, asked Scotten.“That is exactly right,” Scotten answered.U.S. Circuit Judges Jay Bybee, a George W. Bush appointee and Daniel Bress, a Donald Trump appointee, rounded out the panel.California Governor Gavin Newsom filed a similar lawsuit in May 2025 against the Interior Department for the decision to approve the casino project, claiming the federal government wrongfully found the Koi Nation had a “significant historical connection” to the Shiloh site.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads