Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Appellate Court Sides With Foes of Highway 99 Indian Casino
Bill McEwen updated website photo 2024
By Bill McEwen, News Director
Published 4 years ago on
June 11, 2021

Share

Just days after a top executive with Las Vegas-based Red Rock Resorts said that construction on the Fresno area’s newest Indian gaming casino would break ground before the end of June, the 5th District Court of Appeal sided with project opponents.

In a ruling last month, a three-member panel of the Fresno-based state appellate court ruled that the results of a 2014 statewide referendum prevented then-Gov. Jerry Brown from signing off on the Department of Interior’s decision to move 305 acres along Highway 99 into trust for the off-reservation casino project envisioned by the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians.

“We conclude the people retained the power to annul a concurrence by the governor and the voters exercised this retained power at the 2014 election by impliedly revoking the concurrence for the Madera site,” the appellate opinion stated.

Stand Up for California!, a statewide activist group that often opposes gaming developments, brought the lawsuit against the state and the North Fork Rancheria.

61% of California Voters Opposed Indian Gaming Referendum

Adoption of 2014’s Proposition 48, which was titled the “Indian Gaming Compacts Referendum,” would have paved the way for the casino.

However, more than 4.2 million voters, or 61% of those who cast ballots in the election, opposed the proposition.

(GV Wire File)

The tribe wants to build adjacent to Highway 99 between Avenue 17 and Avenue 18 in Madera County. Plans call for a 213,000-square-foot project housing 2,000 slot machines, 40 table games, two stand-alone restaurants, and a “food hall” concept.

In another Indian casino case, the  state Supreme Court ruled that the governor had the power to concur with Interior’s decisions involving gaming on tribal trust land. But the high court’s 2020 verdict on United Auburn Indian Community of the Auburn Rancheria v. Gov. Gavin C. Newsom wasn’t a direct parallel, the 5th District’s published opinion stated.

Again, the appellate court cited the results of the 2014 referendum, stating that the facts of North Fork were “distinguishable” from those in United Auburn because California voters rejected the Legislature’s ratification of the compact for gaming at the Madera site.

Fresno Card Rooms Seek Victory in US Supreme Court

Meanwhile, two Fresno card rooms — Club One Casino and Deuce Lounge and Casino — are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge to the federal Ninth Circuit’s affirmation of previous rulings favoring the casino project.

The card rooms sued Interior five years ago, claiming that the federal agency illegally took the land into trust for the North Fork tribe.

Interior Secretary Urges High Court to Reject Appeal

Last month,  U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland urged the U.S. Supreme Court to deny the challenges from the Fresno card rooms.

“Petitioners suggest that under the IRA [Indian Reorganization Act], the Secretary’s acquisition of land in trust for the benefit of a tribe transfers only bare title to the federal government and the tribe. But … where Congress authorizes the Secretary to place land in trust for an Indian tribe, such land qualifies as Indian country,” Haaland wrote in the filing.

 

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

California Senator Will Make Historic Appearance at Fresno City College Commencement

DON'T MISS

Gaza Ceasefire Talks in Cairo Near ‘Significant Breakthrough,’ Two Security Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Farmer Sentenced to Prison in $650,000 Crop Insurance Fraud Case

DON'T MISS

Where Were the Most Car Crashes in Clovis? Police Release List

DON'T MISS

Protesters to Rally in Brooklyn After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman

DON'T MISS

Selma Teen’s Death May Be Tied to Fentanyl, Police Say

DON'T MISS

Blast Kills at Least 26 People in Nigeria’s Northeast, Residents Say

DON'T MISS

5-Year-Old Girl and Parents Among Those Dead in Vehicle Ramming in Vancouver

DON'T MISS

Feds Again Bump Up Water Allocation for Many Fresno County Farmers

DON'T MISS

Levi Strauss Shareholders Vote Against Proposal to End Diversity Programs

UP NEXT

Where Were the Most Car Crashes in Clovis? Police Release List

UP NEXT

Protesters to Rally in Brooklyn After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman

UP NEXT

Selma Teen’s Death May Be Tied to Fentanyl, Police Say

UP NEXT

Visalia Police Captain Charged With Embezzlement, Theft

UP NEXT

Autopsy Confirms Gene Hackman Died From Heart Disease

UP NEXT

Fresno Man Ejected, Killed in High-Speed Wreck Following Pursuit

UP NEXT

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Naomi Kaylynn Acker

UP NEXT

Trump Says Putin May Not Want Peace and May Need to Be ‘Dealt With Differently’

UP NEXT

Only About Half of Republicans Say Trump Has Focused on the Right Priorities

UP NEXT

Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 People, Half of Them Children

Bill McEwen,
News Director
Bill McEwen is news director and columnist for GV Wire. He joined GV Wire in August 2017 after 37 years at The Fresno Bee. With The Bee, he served as Opinion Editor, City Hall reporter, Metro columnist, sports columnist and sports editor through the years. His work has been frequently honored by the California Newspapers Publishers Association, including authoring first-place editorials in 2015 and 2016. Bill and his wife, Karen, are proud parents of two adult sons, and they have two grandsons. You can contact Bill at 559-492-4031 or at Send an Email

Where Were the Most Car Crashes in Clovis? Police Release List

9 hours ago

Protesters to Rally in Brooklyn After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman

9 hours ago

Selma Teen’s Death May Be Tied to Fentanyl, Police Say

9 hours ago

Blast Kills at Least 26 People in Nigeria’s Northeast, Residents Say

10 hours ago

5-Year-Old Girl and Parents Among Those Dead in Vehicle Ramming in Vancouver

10 hours ago

Feds Again Bump Up Water Allocation for Many Fresno County Farmers

10 hours ago

Levi Strauss Shareholders Vote Against Proposal to End Diversity Programs

10 hours ago

US and Mexico Have Reached Agreement on New World Screwworm, Ag Secretary Rollins Says

11 hours ago

Death Toll in Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port Blast Rises to 70

11 hours ago

Selma Mayor Responds to Criminal Charge

12 hours ago

California Senator Will Make Historic Appearance at Fresno City College Commencement

For the first time in Fresno City College’s 115-year history, a United States senator will speak at its commencement ceremony. California De...

8 hours ago

8 hours ago

California Senator Will Make Historic Appearance at Fresno City College Commencement

Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip April 28, 2025. (REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa)
8 hours ago

Gaza Ceasefire Talks in Cairo Near ‘Significant Breakthrough,’ Two Security Sources Say

8 hours ago

Fresno County Farmer Sentenced to Prison in $650,000 Crop Insurance Fraud Case

9 hours ago

Where Were the Most Car Crashes in Clovis? Police Release List

Officers with the New York Police Department outside the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, on Monday, April 28, 2025. The Police Department said it was preparing for new protests in Brooklyn on Monday after a woman was verbally and physically assaulted by hundreds of pro-Israel demonstrators there last week. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times)
9 hours ago

Protesters to Rally in Brooklyn After Pro-Israel Crowd Assaults Woman

9 hours ago

Selma Teen’s Death May Be Tied to Fentanyl, Police Say

At least 26 people were killed and three injured on Monday when two vehicles struck an improvised explosive device in Nigeria’s insurgency-hit Borno state, an attack residents blamed on Boko Haram. (Shutterstock)
10 hours ago

Blast Kills at Least 26 People in Nigeria’s Northeast, Residents Say

Visitors pay their respects at a memorial after a vehicle drove into a crowd during a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, British Columbia, Sunday, April 27, 2025. (AP/Lindsey Wasson)
10 hours ago

5-Year-Old Girl and Parents Among Those Dead in Vehicle Ramming in Vancouver

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend