Tax cases get joined
The courts have decided to merge the two separate cases of the Seneca/Cayuga with that of the Mohawks in regards to the right to sell tax free cigarettes.
Wise or not, I don't know. It sounds like the Mohawks were going after this on their own. I also think that we are all individual nations with our own people and land rights and I think this is a way for them to clump us together as just "Indian Nation".
This is important, because they can draw one nations right upon the other as well as draw one nations discrepancies and land rights upon the other. Granted that we are both Indian, we are Iroquois and we do share a similar language and culture, but our land rights are different. The Mohawk have land that straddles the U.S. Canadian border, and we have more treaty rights than they do. How will this work out in U.S. courts, courts that are not about our best interest??
I hope that we figure this out and that we do not let them figure it out for us.
Wise or not, I don't know. It sounds like the Mohawks were going after this on their own. I also think that we are all individual nations with our own people and land rights and I think this is a way for them to clump us together as just "Indian Nation".
This is important, because they can draw one nations right upon the other as well as draw one nations discrepancies and land rights upon the other. Granted that we are both Indian, we are Iroquois and we do share a similar language and culture, but our land rights are different. The Mohawk have land that straddles the U.S. Canadian border, and we have more treaty rights than they do. How will this work out in U.S. courts, courts that are not about our best interest??
I hope that we figure this out and that we do not let them figure it out for us.
posted by administrator at
1:46 AM
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St. Regis Mohawk tax lawsuit will merge with other tribes'
By DAVID WINTERS
A federal judge will consolidate a St. Regis Mohawk Tribe lawsuit over state taxation of reservation cigarette sales with other tribal suits to save time and money.
U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence E. Kahn ruled Thursday to move the St. Regis Mohawk lawsuit from Albany to Buffalo, federal court records show. The suit will be merged with the Seneca Indian Nation case.
"It would be an unnecessary waste of judicial resources for two federal judges to spend time and expense hearing the same claims, in addition to creating the potential for two courts to reach inconsistent results," Judge Kahn wrote. "The interests of judicial economy and avoiding inconsistent outcomes counsel in favor of transferring."
The state wants to collect its $4.35-per-pack sales tax on cigarettes sold by tribal retailers to non-native customers as a way to raise an estimated $200 million a year.
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St. Regis Mohawk attorneys argued unsuccessfully that the Seneca Indian suit had progressed further than their case and that it addresses additional issues that their suit does not, such as Internet cigarette sales, court records show.
Both suits argue that the plan violates the tribe's federally protected rights and would force the tribe to discard its own regulatory system in order to enforce the state's plan.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo's office had asked federal judges also to transfer suits brought by the Unkechauge Nation, which sells cigarettes on the Poospatuck Indian Reservation on Long Island, and the Oneida Indian Nation near Syracuse, to Buffalo.
Judge Richard J. Arcara in Buffalo, who is overseeing the Seneca suit, and Judge Kahn already have issued temporary orders prohibiting the state from moving forward with its plan. Judge Kahn noted that his Buffalo counterpart heard two days of arguments from lawyers on the issue last month. Judge Arcara was expected to issue a decision on the Seneca suit by Oct. 15.
The tribal suits both challenge amendments to the state's tax law that were enacted June 21 and the emergency regulations declared by the state Department of Taxation and Finance in an effort to implement those provisions.
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