Editorial: Remain hopeful for Sault Tribe's off-reservation casino

The effort to put a tribal casino in downtown Lansing has been slowed by a federal court, but that doesn’t mean the issue is dead.

Many civic leaders have long supported the notion that a casino in the city would provide jobs, draw visitors and help support beneficial local programs.

The proposal that has made the most progress so far comes from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, which wants to build the $245-million Kewadin Lansing casino near the Lansing Center.

But the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals approved a stay, which pauses the plans until Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette can prepare a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to take up the matter. Schuette’s office will request that the Sault Ste. Marie tribe’s effort be halted until the high court rules in a separate but similar case involving the Bay Mills Indian Community, another Upper Peninsula-based tribe, and a casino it tried to open in Vanderbilt in the Lower Peninsula in 2010. That casino was shut down.