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Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act Passes Legislature

August 31, 2024

Sacramento, CA— Senate Bill 549 (Newman/ Aguiar-Curry), the Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act passed the California Legislature today. This bill seeks to authorize a limited, one-time action to determine whether certain controlled games operated by commercial California cardrooms are banking card games that violate California law and infringe upon tribal exclusive gaming rights.

“The passage of SB 549 is fantastic news for California’s tribal nations. For over a decade, California tribes have engaged in considerable efforts to defend our exclusive gaming rights guaranteed in the California Constitution,” said CNIGA Chairman James Siva. “The Tribal Nations Access to Justice Act gives tribes access to justice that has been denied not only in this case, but throughout California history.”

Siva went on to say: “Exclusive gaming rights were conferred by the voters of California in a tacit understanding of historical injustices that were inflicted upon tribes by the state of California.

“All too often throughout history, tribes in California were promised certain treaty rights and even large tracts of fertile land that were taken away from us. In those cases, we were stripped of our ability to defend those rights as we were denied access to justice. If this bill becomes law, it will reflect a new day in California history in regard to the civil rights of this state’s tribal nations.”

The bill was conceived by the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, who were the bill’s original sponsors.

“This has never been a fight about gaming - it has always been a fight about civil rights and judicial access for tribes,” said Viejas Chairman John Christman. “We are thankful that the vast majority of the Legislature finally saw through the political noise and stood on the side of justice and access for our people.”

SB 549 also had the strong and dedicated support of not only its author, Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), but also its principal co-author Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) as well as Sen. Tony Atkins (D- San Diego), the former President Pro Tempore of the California Senate, who expressed strong support early in the legislative process.

“This legislation is about doing right by California’s Indian tribes, to whom Californians made a binding commitment in 2000 by passing a proposition which explicitly gives them an exclusive right to certain games in recognition of the historical harms to which they were subject,” said Sen. Newman.

Sen. Newman went on to say: “It’s important to note that this bill does not presume to resolve this longstanding dispute directly. Instead, it simply provides a path for the courts to rule whether or not cardrooms are infringing on the tribes’ right to offer the games exclusively. California’s tribes deserve an opportunity to achieve clarity by simply having their day in court. In giving them standing to do so, SB 549 creates a deliberate, circumscribed mechanism to resolve a business dispute in California in a way that ensures that both parties can present their arguments and then allows the courts to make a decision based firmly and purely in law.”

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