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APRIL 25, 2000

Four Northern California card clubs allege the state's Proposition 1A, passed with overwhelming voter support in March of this year, violates the US Constitution. They claim it violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment because it gives preferential treatment to Native American tribes as a race.

The card clubs are urging Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to reject the compacts signed between Gov. Gray Davis and 58 gaming tribes in the state.

A spokesman for Babbitt said the racial challenge holds no water, but that it is a common argument.

Tribes also rejected the argument, citing their rights as sovereigns, not as racial groups.

In the 1974 Morton v. Mancari decision, the Supreme Court ruled that laws and other government policies designated specifically for Indians and Indian tribes are political in nature, not racial. As such they do not violate the Constitution.

Source: Card Rooms Challenge State Agreement on Indian Gambling (The Los Angeles Times 4/25)