Supreme Court Lets Stand 8th Circuit Ruling Holding a Lessee of Tribal Lands Has No Standing to Challenge a BIA Decision to Void Lease

Tim Vollmann

On Feb. 24, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari filed in Sun Prairie v. McCaleb, where review was sought of the 8th Circuit’s decision in Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. McDivitt, 286 F.3d 1031 (April 5, 2002). The lawsuit was a challenge filed jointly by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and its lessee, Sun Prairie, against a decision by Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover in 2000 to invalidate a lease of tribal land for a multi-site hog production facility on the ground that there had not been adequate compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Plaintiffs prevailed in the District Court, Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. Gover, 104 F.Supp.2d 1194 (D.S.D. 2000), which enjoined the Department of the Interior from treating the lease as void.

However, after the District Court decision, tribal elections resulted in a newly constituted Tribal Council, which voted not to pursue the hog production project any further and filed a brief in the 8th Circuit supporting the federal government’s position that voiding the lease was lawful. The Court of Appeals ruled that, without the Tribe, Sun Prairie alone lacked standing to pursue the case. Since Sun Prairie, in addition to not being within the zone of interests of the statutes intended to protect Indian interests, was also not within the zone of interests of the environmental statutes that were relied upon in its complaint. The Court vacated the injunction, and remanded the case to the District Court with instructions to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction.