Lac Vieux Desert Tribe Gains Major Court Victory from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals

“Because a proper weighing of the factors demonstrates by a preponderance of the evidence that the Entities are indeed arms of the Tribe, Big Picture and Ascension are entitled to tribal sovereign immunity,” the ruling states.

“We could not be more pleased with the Fourth Circuit’s decision upholding our Tribe’s sovereignty and our Tribal businesses’ recognition as arms of the Tribe,” said LVD Chairman James Williams, Jr. “By reversing the District Court, the Fourth Circuit’s ruling is a major victory for Native American sovereign rights across all of Indian country. The decision also provides welcome clarity to the standards used to evaluate tribal economic instrumentalities.”

“The Fourth Circuit has affirmed what we have known and argued all along: our businesses are sovereign arms of the Tribe and immune from Plaintiffs’ baseless claims,” Williams continued. “We hope that we can now put this issue to bed once and for all, allowing us to fully focus on the needs of our people.”

In addition to the Court’s finding that both businesses are legitimate arms of the Tribe, the Court also determined that tribal immunity is not negatively impacted by a business’ employment of non-tribal members, its decision to outsource management, or a court’s like or dislike of the business in which a tribe has chosen to engage.

As has been the case since time immemorial, American Indian tribes are sovereign, which means that they have the inherent authority to make their own laws and govern themselves free from outside interference. Sovereignty predates the U.S. Constitution and is acknowledged by federal and state governments through treaties, laws, executive orders, and intergovernmental agreements, and has been confirmed by centuries of U.S. Supreme Court and lower court precedent.

The court held that sovereign immunity remains intact when a tribe elects not to conduct commerce directly, but to use tribally-created entities qualifying as “arms of the tribe.”

Furthermore, the opinion states that “one of the primary purposes underlying tribal immunity is the promotion of tribal self-governance, which counsels against courts demanding exacting information about the minutiae of a tribe’s budget.”

“The Tribe firmly believes that the Court reached the right result, and we hope that this outcome will serve as a model for future decisions,” Williams concluded.