N.Y. to appeal ruling to high court

Joel Stashenko

Tuesday, July 8, 2003 | 9:55 a.m.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. George Pataki said he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a state compact that allowed casino gambling on the Mohawk Indian reservation.

Pataki's lawyers have asked the state's top court, the Court of Appeals, to stay its June 12 ruling that invalidated the Mohawks' casino deal while he seeks an appeal to the nation's highest court.

A divided Court of Appeals ruled that the 1993 casino compact reached by the Mohawks and former Gov. Mario Cuomo was invalid because the state Legislature has never ratified it.

"We believe the Court of Appeals decision raised important issues of federal law and we have asked the Supreme Court to review the decision," Pataki spokeswoman Suzanne Morris said Monday. "In the interim, we have requested the court to grant a stay to allow us to continue to regulate gaming at the casinos."

The Court of Appeals has given the parties involved in the Mohawk casino case until Thursday to respond to Pataki's request for a stay.

The lawyer arguing against the 1993 compact, Cornelius Murray, said the Court of Appeals' ruling was "purely" about state law, not federal law.

"I think it is highly unlikely that the U.S. Supreme Court would presume to overrule a state's highest court on the issue of what powers a governor has under that state's own constitution," Murray said.

The Court of Appeals broadly hinted to state legislators in its ruling that they were free to validate the 1993 compact anytime. But the Legislature left Albany a week later without the Assembly having ratified the agreement. Speaker Sheldon Silver said he hadn't had enough time to study the issue.

Though leaders of the Mohawks' Akwesasne tribe urged the Legislature to ratify the casino pact, the June ruling was expected to have little practical effect on the operations of the gambling hall in northern New York.

Opponents have claimed that the casino has been operating illegally since it opened in 1999, and that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has failed to exercise its powers to regulate the venture.

The case decided last month is expected to be a prelude to a more broadly based challenge to Indian-run casinos now before a state Supreme Court justice in Albany. That ruling challenges the legality of an October 2001 law allowing the establishment of up to six new Indian casinos in the state.

Murray said he does not want to shut down any of the three Indian casinos currently operating in the state, just prevent more from opening.