Tribes who are looking to the Obama administration for change won't find it in a brief the Department of Justice filed in an off-reservation gaming case.

Government attorneys said the St. Croix Band of Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin cannot challenge off-reservation gaming policies of the prior administration. A brief filed with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals calls for the dismissal of the tribe's lawsuit.

"They don’t seem to have changed their arguments," Joseph Hunt, a spokesperson for the tribe's Beloit Casino Project, told The Beloit Daily News.

The lawsuit is based on two main claims. First, the tribe says the Bush administration changed the way in which off-reservation casinos are reviewed in order to make it easier to reject them.

Second, the tribe challenged a "guidance memorandum" that the prior administration issued in January 2008. The policy was developed without tribal consultation or public input.

In the D.C. Circuit brief, attorneys for the Obama administration said neither claim can be reviewed in court because they don't represent a "final agency action."

Get the Story:
New D.C. cast, same casino opposition (The Beloit Daily News 7/8)
Officials continue pitch based on jobs (The Beloit Daily News 7/8)

Relevant Documents:
Obama Administration Brief (July 1, 2009)