Seminole Tribe Continues Challenge to Florida's Utility Taxes

The Seminole Tribe of Florida has gone to a federal appeals court as part of a long-running legal dispute about whether the tribe should be shielded from state utility taxes on electricity used on reservation land.

Lawyers for the tribe last week filed a notice of appeal after a federal judge refused to reconsider his decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Seminoles against the Florida Department of Revenue.

As is common, the notice of appeal does not detail the arguments that the tribe will make to the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. But U.S. District Judge Robert Scola dismissed the lawsuit because he said it essentially involved the same issues as an earlier case in which the appeals court rejected the tribe's challenge to state utility taxes.