U.S.Sup.Ct.
11-246
The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire property for the purpose of providing land to Indians. 25 U. S. C. §465. Petitioner Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Band), an Indian tribe federally recognized in 1999, requested that the Secretary take into trust on its behalf a tract of land known as the Bradley Property, which the Band intended to use for gaming purposes. The Secretary took title to the Bradley Property in 2009. Respondent David Patchak, who lives near the Bradley Property, filed suit under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), asserting that §465 did not authorize the Secretary to acquire the property because the Band was not a federally recognized tribe when the IRA was enacted in 1934. Patchak alleged a variety of economic, environmental, and aesthetic harms as a result of the Bands proposed use of the property to operate a casino, and requested injunctive and declaratory relief reversing the Secretarys decision to take title to the land. The Band intervened to defend the Secretarys decision. The District Court did not reach the merits of Patchaks suit, but ruled that he lacked prudential standing to challenge the Secretarys acquisition of the Bradley Property. The D. C. Circuit reversed and also rejected the Secretarys and the Bands alternative argument that sovereign immunity barred the suit.
