Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo v. Texas

In 1968, Congress officially recognized the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Indian Tribe (tribe) (defendant) and assigned trust responsibilities for the tribe to Texas (plaintiff), the state in which the tribe’s land was located. When Texas renounced those trust responsibilities in 1983, the tribe sought new federal legislation that would reestablish the tribe’s trust relationship with the federal government. However, Texas opposed such legislation. Unhappy about the tribe’s bingo practices, Texas argued that any federal legislation should allow Texas to apply its gaming laws on the tribe’s lands. In 1987, Congress adopted the Ysleta del Sur and Alabama and Coushatta Indian Tribes of Texas Restoration Act (Restoration Act). It included a gaming provision, stating that all gaming activities prohibited by Texas law were prohibited on the tribe’s lands. The provision also stated that federal courts had exclusive jurisdiction over any violations, expressly noting that the provision should not be construed to give Texas civil or criminal regulatory jurisdiction. The next year, Congress adopted national gaming legislation for tribal lands, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). Under IGRA, bingo was a class II game, which the act allowed on tribal land in states that permitted the game for any purpose by any person, organization, or entity. Because Texas law allowed bingo for charitable purposes, the tribe concluded that it could offer bingo on its lands. It offered not only traditional bingo, but also electronic bingo, which was like a slot machine based on historical bingo draws. Texas sued the tribe to shut down the bingo operations, arguing that the Restoration Act prohibited the tribe from violating Texas’s gaming laws, which did not allow commercial bingo. The district court and court of appeals held in Texas’s favor. The tribe appealed.