"The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians chose to quietly ignore the protests, the legal challenges and the political theater and proceed with construction of the facility after reviewing what they believe is their sovereign right to do so. Tribal Chief Miko Beasley Denson maintained a low profile and let other political leaders hold the spotlight.

Denson and the majority of the Choctaw Tribal Council relied on the tribe's 1992 gaming compact with the state and with federal and state legal precedents.

Attorney General Jim Hood's office issued a memorandum that held that the state had no "legal cause of action" to block Choctaws' new casino project.

Hood's office began researching whether the state could legally stop the casino project after Gov. Haley Barbour asked Hood to review the laws surrounding Indian gaming in the state on June 22.

The critical language of the memo is that the "validity of the compact has already been decided by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District, and affirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals" and cited the fact that the statute of limitations on challenges to such compacts expired more than 10 years ago.

Objections by some Jones County residents on moral or religious grounds are to be respected. But equally clear is the fact that the big private gaming interests already entrenched on the Gulf Coast don't want competition and flexed their political muscles through surrogates.

Since state and local officials can't tax Choctaw gaming, many of them oppose the tribe as well as they seek to expand their gaming interests to Jones County.

But if the Choctaw gaming compact is valid - and the federal courts and the federal bureaucracy says that it is - then Mississippi should honor the compact."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Casino: Choctaws proceed with plans (The Jackson Clarion Ledger 11/30)

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