Whether IGRA authorizes gaming on tribal lands previously governed by trust statutes that prohibited gaming

QUESTION PRESENTED On August 18, 1987, Congress passed acts codifying relationships with two distinct, sovereign Indian tribes: the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head of Massachusetts and the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Tribe of Texas. Each Act—the Settlement Act for the Wampanoag, and the Restoration Act for the gaming on tribal lands to the same extent it was prohibited by the States in which those tribal lands were located. In 1988, Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), which “provideld] a statutory basis for the operation of gaming by Indian tribes” and established “Federal standards for gaming on Indian lands.” 25 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2721. The National Indian Gaming Commission, the agency entitled to interpret IGRA, concluded that IGRA permitted both the Wampanoag and Alabama-Coushatta to conduct bingo operations on each Tribe’s lands. The question presented is: Whether IGRA authorizes gaming on tribal lands previously governed by trust statutes that prohibited gaming, as the National Indian Gaming Commission, the Department of the Interior, and the First Circuit have concluded, or not, as the Fifth Circuit has held.