Editorial: Judge sends Cowlitz Tribe casino back to square one

Formal opposition to the proposed Cowlitz tribal casino in north Clark County has been expressed over several years by city councils in Vancouver, La Center and Woodland; chambers of commerce in Vancouver and Battle Ground; property owners near the site and business groups throughout the area. Thus, there is ample room for rejoicing at Wednesday's news that the casino project has been dealt a severe blow by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Barbara J. Rothstein in Washington, D.C., essentially sent the decade-in-the-works project back to square one. She threw out a 2010 Record of Decision that had recognized the tribe's right to establish a reservation on Interstate 5 near La Center. "The court will not waste its or the parties' resources on such a fruitless endeavor" as litigating the 2010 ROD, which had become mired in federal bureaucratic blunders. Not the least of those mistakes had been the Bureau of Indian Affairs either losing or never receiving important documents from casino opponents.