Federal prosecutor says Kline lacked right to file suit

? A federal prosecutor said Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline had no jurisdiction to file lawsuits against two federal agencies and has asked that the suits be dropped.

Kline sued the National Indian Gaming Commission and the U.S. Department of the Interior last fall after the Wyandotte Tribe of Oklahoma opened a casino in downtown Kansas City, Kan., next to the tribe’s historic Huron Cemetery.

Kline accused the federal agencies of allowing the casino to open without adhering to federal environmental and historic preservation review guidelines. He also complained that state officials had not been consulted beforehand.

But Eric Melgren, U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, said Monday that environmental and historic preservation laws did not apply in the case and that Kline should have sued the tribe instead.

“There are no surprises here,” Kline spokesman Whitney Watson said. “This is really about what we expected to get from them.”

Kline sued the same two agencies earlier last year after the casino site was declared tribal reservation lands that qualified for federally authorized gambling activities. That case also is pending.

The attorney general’s latest legal action also challenged the federal government’s decision last year to license the tribal casino based in part on a “generic” gaming ordinance approved in 1994 by tribal authorities.

For nearly eight years, the tribe has been seeking legitimacy through the courts for a casino in Wyandotte County. It has sued local landowners, including General Motors, claiming historic land rights to nearly 2,000 acres of mostly developed and privately owned land.

Tribal officials have characterized the land claim as a bargaining chip they are willing to trade for the right to operate a casino in the city.