Maine Gov. Janet Mills Vetoes Bill to Give Wabanaki Tribes Federal Rights

Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has vetoed legislation that would get afforded the state’s tribes greater memory access to federal beneficial laws. Mills’ rejection of the eyeshade (ID 2004) Friday occurred despite overwhelming two-party backing in the House and Senate.

The IV Wabanaki tribes make long demanded the same rights as other tribes in the country. The governor’s conclusion to veto a vizor whose approval was described by Penobscot Nation Chief Kirk Francis as “a turning point victory inward the chase of Wabanaki self-determination” has mystified observers and enraged the tribes.

It is the second time Mills has vetoed a greenback that would feature expanded sovereignty for the tribes, whose crowned head rights are qualified compared to Native American groups inward other states.

‘Conflict and Litigation’

In a six-page blackball letter, Robert Mills said the greenback “contained a complicated series of provisions that inward my panorama pose a real serious risk of infection of infringe and judicial proceeding kinda than coaction and communication.”

ID 2004 would make placed Maine’s tribes on the same ground as the other 570 federally recognized tribes in the US, gift them access code to federal benefits they experience been denied by a 1980 land claims settlement.

Or almost on equalize footing.

The note would non take into account the tribes to get up stratum II gaming on their reservations below the federal Red Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). That was a grant added past the bill’s authors to win the financial support of Pine Tree State Republicans.

Sports Betting Redress

Under the Maine Red Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA), the tribes were afforded a narrower edition of supreme rights enjoyed past many other Native American tribes, including the right on to prepare gaming. Currently, their reservations are treated the like municipalities, which means they remain content to body politic laws.

MICSA also stipulated that federal laws enacted after 1980 would not apply to the Wabanaki tribes unless the law of nature mentioned ME specifically. 1988’s IGRA, which codified Native American gaming rights on tribal lands, didn’t.

Mills attempted to partially remedy this instability when she led negotiations with the tribes on the legitimation of sports betting and in agreement(p) to commit them exclusivity over peregrine wagering. Maine legalized sports betting inward the fountain of 2022, but it is yet to set in motion in the state.

Override Possible

ID 2004 passed the province legislative assembly with a supermajority, garnering the two-thirds of the vote needed to override the governor’s veto.

But there’s no warrantee that testament happen. Lawmakers who were previously persuaded to support the bank bill may now waver when asked to voting against the governor, and there’s not practically way for maneuver.

“…[a] bipartisan, supermajority of the Legislature passed this bill and [that’s] exactly wherefore I testament do work tirelessly to tackle that same group of legislators and override this veto,” House utterer Talbot Sir James Clark Ross (D-Portland) said inwards a statement.