Sixteen people who said their civil rights were violated by disenrollment from the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians had their claim rejected Tuesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The prominent, wealthy band runs the Pechanga Resort & Casino near Temecula.

Disenrolled members lose shares in casino profits as well as access to paid health care, life insurance and other benefits.

At the time of their 2006 dismissal from the tribe, every adult Pechanga member received a per capita benefit of more than $250,000 per year, court papers noted.

The group did not directly challenge the decision by the tribe's enrollment committee, which was upheld by the Tribal Council.

Instead, they contend their disenrollment was "tantamount to an unlawful detention," under the Indian Civil Rights Act.

The majority of the three-judge panel disagreed and upheld a lower court's dismissal of the lawsuit.

They said federal courts could only consider an alleged violation of the Indian Civil Rights Act for a tribal criminal proceeding.

The disenrollments, they said, were a civil matter, and a federal court's intervention "would circumvent tribal sovereignty."

"Despite the novelty of this approach, we nonetheless lack subject matter jurisdiction to consider this claim, because the Appellants were not detained," said the opinion by judges Johnnie B. Rawlinson and N. Randy Smith.

The group claimed that denial of access to the tribe's Senior Citizens' Center, health clinic and halting their children's attendance of tribal school was the same as detention.

"The denial of access to certain facilities does not pose a severe actual or potential restraint on the Appellants' liberty," the judges wrote.

Tuesday's decision cited a U.S. 2nd Circuit opinion in a similar case. It stated loss of quarterly distributions and other benefits "are simply 'insufficient' " to make a claim of civil rights violations under the Indian Civil Rights Act.

The court also noted that disenrollment did not include banishment, and it rejected a claim that the 16 former members are "under a continuing threat of banishment/exclusion." They also said the group had not exhausted its tribal remedies.

Judge Claudia Wilken dissented. She said she did not believe invocation of the Indian Civil Rights Act before a federal court was limited to criminal procedures.

"The act of stripping Appellants' Tribal citizenship and the current and potential restrictions placed upon Appellants constitute a severe restraint on their liberty," the judge wrote. "... Appellants have been detained."

The group can seek to have Tuesday's decision re-heard by a larger group of 9th Circuit judges. They can ultimately appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 16 people named in the federal court case were among an estimated 90 adults who were disenrolled after tribal officials reviewed members who attribute their lineage to Paulina Hunter, who was allotted land on the reservation in its early days in the 1800s. Hunter died in 1899.

Her lineage to the tribe was challenged a few years ago.

In 2004, another 135 people descended from Pablo Apis, a 19th-century leader of the Luiseño Indians, were disenrolled after the tribe determined Apis was unrelated to the Pechanga Indians. The Apis descendants unsuccessfully appealed in state court.

There are currently about 1,500 Pechanga band members.

Reach Richard K. De Atley at 951-368-9573 or rdeatley@PE.com