A local tribe's plan to build a Las Vegas-style casino on the southern edge of Plymouth was threatened further Tuesday, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot place land into trust for tribes recognized after 1934.

The 6-3 decision centered on a Massachusetts tribe's attempt to construct a $1 billion casino in Middleborough, but legal experts and local casino opponents agreed the ruling had broad implications for many tribes, including the Ione Band of Miwok Indians, which recently saw its restored status upended by an internal U.S. Department of the Interior memo.

"For any tribe not formally recognized on June 18, 1934, this court case establishes a roadblock, which, in my estimation, only Congress can reverse," said Dennis Whittlesey, a Washington-based lawyer who specializes in Indian law.

Whittlesey represented Amador County in its quest to stop the Buena Vista Band of Me-Wuk Indians from building a casino just outside of Ione, an effort that suffered a major setback in January, when the county's lawsuit against the Interior Department was dismissed.

The Carcieri fix

In Carcieri v. Salazar, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government had been, in effect, misreading the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 for nearly 75 years. The ruling hinged on the act's use of the word "now." The act authorized the secretary of the Interior to acquire land and place it into trust for "members of any recognized tribe now under Federal jurisdiction."

In his majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that "now" means only tribes recognized by 1934 would be eligible to receive trust land. Whittlesey called the ruling "eminently predictable."

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in Massachusetts was federally recognized in 2007. The Ione Band didn't receive federal recognition until 1994, though even that has been cast into doubt by the Bernhardt opinion.

Ione Band Chairman Matt Franklin challenged that it may be federal jurisdiction, not recognition, that determines the ruling's breadth.

If a tribe can show that the federal government held jurisdiction over it before 1934, even if recognition came later, the tribe may be able to avoid the ruling's grasp, he said Wednesday.

"We have such a unique history that we don't know if it will affect us or not," he added, claiming the tribe had contact with the federal government as far back as 1915.

The tribe's legal counsel was reviewing the decision's impact on the Ione Band, Franklin said, but he acknowledged the Supreme Court ruling was a potential game changer.

"A lot of California tribes could be hurt, both gaming and non-gaming," he said.

Others took a glass-half-full point of view.

"This is good news for lots of communities across the U.S. and not so good news for tribes or wannabe tribes," said Butch Cranford, vice president of No Casino in Plymouth, a local advocacy group.

"Tribes can still be tribes and still own land," he added. "They're just not going to have any special protection the government offered (tribes) under the Indian Reorganization Act."

The ruling was not retroactive, meaning tribes recognized after 1934 that already have trust land would not be affected. It was unclear what would happen to applications currently before the Interior Department, according to attorney Jim Parrinello, who represented Amador County when it unsuccessfully appealed the Ione Band's status as a restored tribe.

Asked whether the Supreme Court ruling automatically freezes the fee-to-trust application process, Parrinello said, "One could argue that should be the result, but I couldn't predict what they're going to do."

"It's conceivable they could proceed with the process and make a decision not to take land into trust," he added.

Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the Department of Indian Affairs, said both the Supreme Court ruling and Bernhardt opinion were being reviewed.

Congressional intervention

Specialists said tribes will need to lobby Congress to change federal law for dealing with Native American land. Whittlesey expected lawmakers to take up the issue via a statutory amendment.

"My belief is Congress has to fix it quickly," he said. "Otherwise, it's going to create two classes of Indians - those that can take land into trust and those who can't."

Whittlesey added that "quickly," in congressional terms, could mean months.

Predicting that effort's success, Parrinello said, would be "really kind of speculative right now."

"Whether (Congress will) be able to do that or not remains to be seen," he said. Native American groups have been given a "substantial voice," he acknowledged, "(but) getting a bill through Congress may be easier said than done."

Cranford also questioned Whittlesey's certainty of congressional intervention.

"Dennis Whittlesey works on both sides of the coin," he said, noting the attorney's representation of the county and his work negotiating the multimillion-dollar agreement between the Mashpee Wampanoag and the town of Middleborough. "He's going to get paid no matter what happens."

Buena Vista unaffected

Whittlesey told the Ledger Dispatch the Supreme Court ruling wouldn't impact the five-member Buena Vista tribe's efforts, "because there is no fee to trust application there." The tribe was able to secure gaming land by successfully arguing a rancheria is legally the same as a reservation.

Jerry Cassesi, a member of the anti-casino group Friends of Amador County, said his organization's attorney offered the same interpretation and also agreed that a congressional response to what's already being called the "Carcieri fix" seemed inevitable.

Cranford said there are still a number of issues to be decided when it comes to the federal government's handling of Native American tribes and gaming, among them what it means to be under federal jurisdiction and what Congress intended with the term, "reservation."

"There's a whole host of issues that, at some time, probably down the road, need to be dealt with."

'A diabolical shot'

One legal expert said the Bernhardt opinion would present a bigger obstacle for the Ione Band than the court ruling.

The expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict, didn't expect the Interior Department to revisit the matter until a new administration was in place. President Barack Obama, who was successful in getting Ken Salazar appointed as secretary of the Interior, is closing in on a selection for assistant secretary. He has yet to name his pick to succeed Bernhardt as solicitor.

"I don't know how what he has done can be unwound," the expert said of Bernhardt's opinion. "It really was a diabolical shot to the Ione tribe."

Taken together, Cranford said the memo and Supreme Court ruling presented "two huge hurdles" for the Ione Band. "I think this does away, for all intents and purposes, with the current fee-to-trust application."

Parrinello wouldn't go that far, but he did say both issues would have to be addressed by the tribe. Solving one wouldn't address the other, he reasoned.

"We're taking it one step at a time," Franklin said. "There's so much going on."

Franklin told the Ledger Dispatch last week he hoped the Bureau of Indian Affairs would address the issue. On Wednesday, he said his most recent correspondence from both the regional and federal offices informed him the tribe's environmental application process was moving forward. That wasn't independently confirmed by BIA officials.

Darling said it's common practice for new administrations to review past decisions, especially ones that come in the "waning days" of previous administrations. As for how often such decisions have been overturned, Darling said, "It's happened."

But reversing a reversal?

Parrinello noted that the federal government originally took the position that the Ione Band was not a restored tribe. It was former Solicitor Carl Artman who overturned that in 2006. On Jan. 16, Bernhardt issued an internal memo to acting Deputy Assistant Secretary George Skibine calling that opinion "wrong" and reversing the tribe's status.

"This is just going back to the original opinion they held," Parrinello observed. "Who knows how often the ping pong ball will go back and forth across the table?"

The Boston Globe contributed to this report.

Raheem Hosseini