After spending nearly six years in six courts, the legal battle between the Forest County Potawatomi Community of Wisconsin and the city of Waukegan is likely over after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit put an end to the last pending case.
Starting in 2019, the Waukegan City Council certified three candidates to the Illinois Gaming Board for consideration to receive a casino license in the city, but excluded a fourth contender, the Potawatomi. The Potawatomi then filed its first of two lawsuits.
While the federal case was winding its way from Lake County Court to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and then to the 7th Circuit, the Potawatomi filed a second case in 2021 against the city and the gaming board to stop the licensing.
When a Cook County judge rejected the Potawatomi’s request, the gaming board quickly issued a license to Full House Resorts, which opened its temporary American Place casino in Waukegan two years ago. The pending litigation slowed the development of a permanent resort and casino.
Three weeks after the Illinois Supreme Court put an end to the state case in January restarting the effort to build the permanent American Place, the federal case was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit unanimously rejected the Potawatomi’s appeal from the federal district court, dismissing the federal case on Feb. 14 in Chicago, likely putting an end to all litigation between Waukegan and the Potawatomi.
Stewart Weiss, an attorney with Waukegan corporation counsel Elrod Friedman, said the decision was appropriate and he sees little chance the Potawatomi will take any further legal action against the city.
“This is absolutely the right outcome for a case that never should have been brought in the first place,” Weiss said. “The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals recognized that the city’s selection process was open, fair and based on facts.”
Though the federal appellate court’s decision is final, Weiss said the Potawatomi could ask for a rehearing before all 11 of the court’s judges to review the unanimous decision by the three-judge panel. They can also ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case. Both are unlikely.
”In this case, I would be highly surprised if either would occur based on the line of reasoning,” Weiss said. “The opinion was very clear.”
Though the Potawatomi alleged they were treated unfairly in violation of federal civil rights laws, they offered significantly less to the city for the proposed 30-acre site near the Fountain Square shopping center and did not propose an entertainment venue, according to the court’s decision. The others did. Like states, tribes do not have rights under the civil rights laws.
“The myriad rational bases for (Waukegan’s) conduct are independent, sufficient reasons for affirming summary judgment,” Judge Thomas Kirsch wrote in his opinion. “The city’s review process may have been flawed. But the absence of perfection in a process does not prove intentional discrimination.”
Attempts to reach a representative of the Potawatomi were unsuccessful.
Weiss said the Potawatomi did not show any evidence of discrimination. Instead, they accused Waukegan of conspiring against them, asking the court to ignore the valid reasons the Potawatomi was not certified to the gaming board.
“The court saw through this and came to the right conclusion,” Weiss said. “Now that both the Illinois Supreme Court and the highest federal court in Illinois have ruled for the city, we look forward to the construction of a permanent home for American Place in Waukegan.”
Alex Stolyar, Full House Resorts senior vice president and chief development officer, said the court’s decision removes one more burden as the company restarts the process of drawing plans and building the permanent American Place Resort and Casino.
“I’m very pleased with the result,” Stolyar said. “The Potawatomi really didn’t have a case here. We’re moving forward with the architects and drawings so we can get going.”
