A Native American tribe sued the Trump administration Tuesday for suspending approval of a new casino 30 miles northeast of San Francisco, calling the Interior Department review “procedurally indefensible, legally unauthorized, and profoundly harmful.” The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in a bid to block Interior from reviewing and potentially reversing approval for its planned casino, housing, administrative building and parking on a 160-acre site in Vallejo, California. The Bureau of Indian Affairs had agreed to take those lands into trust for the tribe in mid-January and issued a gaming eligibility determination, clearing the way for the casino. “This case seeks to restore the rule of law,” the lawsuit states. “The Defendants’ rescission is procedurally indefensible, legally unauthorized, and profoundly harmful to the Scotts Valley Band. The Tribe followed every rule. It fought for decades to regain land and opportunity. It earned a final decision. That decision now deserves to be honored — not quietly reconsidered.”
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