Cayuga Nation v. United States

594 F.Supp.3d 64

CAYUGA NATION, Plaintiff,

v.UNITED STATES of America, et al., Defendants.

Case No. 1:20-cv-3179-RCL

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Signed March 29, 2022

Gabriel M. Nugent, Barclay Damon LLP, Syracuse, NY, Zachary Charles Schauf, David W. DeBruin, Jenner & Block LLP, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

Christopher D. Edelman, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Washington, DC, for Defendants United States of America, U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher A. Wray, Robert Wilkinson.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Royce C. Lamberth, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Cayuga Nation ("the Nation") is an Indian nation located within a reservation in the State of New York. The Bureau of Indian Affairs has recognized the Halftown Council—a six-member Cayuga Nation Council led by Clint Halftown—as the Nation's lawful governing body, but an opposing Council in the Nation disputes this recognition. Admin. R. ("AR") 27, ECF No. 25. The Nation, under the Halftown Council's leadership, established the Cayuga Nation Police Department ("Nation PD"). Id. at 68. The Nation PD then applied to the Federal Bureau of Investigations ("FBI") for an Originating Agency Identification Number ("ORI"), which would allow the Nation PD to access FBI-administered criminal databases. Id. Under the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 ("TLOA"), the FBI must treat "tribal justice official[s] serving an Indian tribe with criminal jurisdiction over Indian country" as law enforcement officials and grant them access to federal criminal information databases. 34 U.S.C. § 41107(3) ; 28 U.S.C. § 534(d). But the FBI declined to grant the Nation PD an ORI, citing the potential leadership dispute in the Nation. AR 484, 963.

The Nation filed this action to challenge that decision under the Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"). It argued that the FBI's decision was both arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with law, and asked this Court to vacate the FBI's denial, "[d]eclare that Cayuga Nation is entitled to an ORI and to access to the federal criminal databases maintained by the FBI," and "enter an injunction [pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 706(1) ] requiring the FBI to grant the Nation's application." Am. Compl. ¶¶ 118–20, ECF No. 12. Now, both parties move for summary judgment. Defs.’ Mot., ECF No. 16; Pl.’s Mot., ECF No. 19.¹ Upon consideration of the parties’ filings, applicable law, and the record herein, the Court will GRANT IN PART and DENY IN PART the Nation's motion for summary judgment and GRANT IN PART and DENY IN PART the FBI's motion for summary judgment. For the reasons below, the Court finds that the FBI's decision was arbitrary and capricious and will VACATE the FBI's decision. But injunctive relief under § 706(1) is not warranted here at this time.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Cayuga Nation And Its Leadership

The Cayuga Nation resides within what is now considered Cayuga and Seneca Counties, New York. Pl.’s Mot. 6. In 1794, the federal government recognized a 64,015-acre reservation for the Nation and promised it would remain the Nation's until a time when the Nation would "choose to sell [it] to the people of the United States." Treaty of Canandaigua of 1794, art. II, Nov. 11, 1794, 7 Stat. 44, 45. Despite this promise, the State of New York unlawfully purchased the reservation lands in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Cayuga Indian Nation of N.Y. v. Pataki , 413 F.3d 266, 268 (2d Cir. 2005). Recently, the Nation has repurchased properties within the reservation and begun to re-establish its homeland. Pl.’s Mot. 6. All federal courts who have considered the question have concluded that the Nation's reservation still legally exists. Cayuga Nation of N.Y. v. Seneca Cnty. , 260 F. Supp. 3d 290, 307–315 (W.D.N.Y. 2017) (collecting cases).

All parties acknowledge the leadership dispute in the Nation that spans decades. Pl.’s Mot. 16; Defs.’ Mot. 8. The Nation adheres to the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace, an "oral, unwritten law." Defs.’ Mot. 8 (citing Cayuga Nation v. Bernhardt , 374 F. Supp. 3d 1, 5 (D.D.C. 2019) ). The governing body of the Nation has historically been the six-member Cayuga Nation Council ("CNC"). Id. Clint Halftown has been a member of the CNC for decades. Pl.’s Mot. 16 (citing Cayuga Nation , 374 F. Supp. 3d at 6 ). In 2004, the Nation's Clan Mothers attempted to remove Halftown, Tim Twoguns, and Gary Wheeler from the CNC. Defs.’ Mot. 9. The Clan Mothers maintain that they have the authority to appoint and remove members of the CNC. Id. But even after the Clan Mothers’ 2004 removal attempt, the BIA continued to recognize Halftown as both a legitimate member of the CNC and the federal representative of the Nation. Defs.’ Mot. 9; Pl.’s Mot. 16.

In 2011, the Clan Mothers tried again to remove Halftown, Twoguns, and Wheeler from the CNC. Defs.’ Mot. 9. While the BIA originally recognized the new CNC without Halftown (the "Jacobs Council") as the legitimate governing body of the Nation, the Interior Board of Indian Appeals ("IBIA") vacated the BIA's decision, declining to involve itself in the tribal leadership dispute unless necessary. See Cayuga Nation v. E. Reg'l Dir., BIA , 58 IBIA 171 (2014). During this period, the Jacobs Council took possession of the Nation's security offices and other property. Pls.’ Mot. 16. Halftown, Twoguns, and Wheeler maintained that they were still part of the properly constituted CNC (the "Halftown Council") and that the Jacobs Council was not a legitimate governing body. Id.

After years of dispute between the two CNCs, in 2016, the Halftown Council sent the citizens of the Nation a document requesting a referendum on the proper CNC leadership. AR 18. The Halftown Council maintains that this "statement of support" process is contemplated under the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace, which provides that when an "especially important matter of great emergency" arises, the issue may be submitted to the people to make a decision. Id. at 19. The Jacobs Council disagreed, arguing that the statement of support process runs counter to the Nation's law. Id. at 20. Pursuant to the "statement of support" process, 237 of the 392 adult Cayuga Nation citizens identified on the Nation membership roll supported the Halftown Council. Id. at 18.

Eventually, the BIA could no longer abstain from the Nation's dispute. Both the Halftown Council and the Jacobs Council applied for various federal contracts, each representing themselves as the legitimate governing body for the Nation. Id. The BIA, facing these competing contract applications from the opposing Councils, concluded that the statement of support process was a valid exercise of Nation law. Id. The BIA reasoned that, as evidenced by the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace, governance within the Nation on its most basic level "derives from the consent of the governed." Id. at 19. Accordingly, the "statement of support" could not be denied without denying the Nation's citizens "their fundamental human right to have a say in their own government." Id. at 20. Based on this conclusion, the BIA recognized the Halftown Council as the governing body of the Nation. Id. at 27. Three years later, in 2019, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney issued a letter confirming this decision and stating that the "Halftown Council is the Nation's government for all purposes." Id. at 892.

After the statement of support and the BIA's decision, the Nation, led by the Halftown Council, established the Office of the Commissioner of Public Safety. AR 68. Arthur Pierce, a former Captain of the New York State Police, was appointed as the first Public Safety Commissioner and Chief of Police. Id. Pierce then established the Nation PD as its police force. Id. Colonel Mark Lincoln, a former member of the New York State Police, was appointed the Superintendent of Police, and other members of the police force were hired—often former New York State Police officers. Id. at 98.

In February 2020, pursuant to a "warrant from the Nation's court," the Nation PD moved to reclaim possession of buildings that it alleged the Jacobs Council had seized in 2014. Pl.’s Mot. 19. In a middle-of-the-night raid, the Nation PD detained eight individuals at gunpoint, issued criminal trespass complaints, and ultimately used bulldozers to demolish the "seized" buildings. Pl.’s Mot. 21; Defs.’ Mot. 11; AR 904. A few days later, tribal members planned protests at the site of the demolished buildings. Pl.’s Mot. 21; Defs.’ Mot 12. A confrontation between the protesters and Nation PD officers present at the protest turned violent. Pl.’s Mot. 21; Defs.’ Mot 12. One Nation PD officer was hospitalized and the scene required non-tribal state and local police departments to respond. Pl.’s Mot. 21–22; Defs.’ Mot 12.

B. The National Crime Information Center, Originating Agency Identifiers, And The Tribal Law And Order Act Of 2010

The FBI maintains the National Crime Information Center ("NCIC")—a database that allows local, state, tribal, federal, foreign, and international criminal justice agencies to access criminal justice records. 28 C.F.R. § 20.3(n). The NCIC database includes sub-databases or "files" like the Known or Suspected Terrorist file, the Wanted Person file, the National Sex Offender Registry, the Violent Person file, the Protection Order file, the Missing Person file, and files related to other specific groups or stolen property. National Criminal Information Center , Fed. Bureau of Investigation, available at https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ncic. A law enforcement agency that wants to access the NCIC needs an ORI. AR 939. The ORI is a unique number signifying that an agency met particular qualifying criteria. 28 C.F.R. § 25.2. To receive an ORI, a law enforcement agency must proffer evidence of its statutory authority, budget, documentation officially creating the agency, documentation of the duties and functions of the agency,...