Robert N. Clinton

An article by Professor Robert N. Clinton on the history of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was published recently in the Arizona State Law Journal, in a special symposium issue marking the Indian Legal Program’s 2008 conference “20 Years of IGRA.”

Clinton traces the debates among tribal leaders regarding whether IGRA would aid tribes in using economic development to achieve greater sovereign power, or whether it would continue the centuries-long process of federal usurpation of tribal sovereign control of wealth by circumscribing tribes’ power to pursue gaming on their own.

Clinton does not assess the debates from the vantage point of what occurred in the 20 years since IGRA’s enactment, but sticks to the debates at the time and illuminates fault lines in the internal discussion among tribal leaders.

He shows that IGRA greatly increased the wealth and political power of many tribes that opposed its enactment. He also summarizes political debates at the time among members of Congress, the Reagan administration, the Nevada gaming interests and the states, and suggests that none of these entities correctly predicted the ultimate implications of the act.

Clinton currently serves as the Foundation Professor of Law and as an affiliated faculty member of the American Indian Studies Program. He is also a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Law, Science & Innovation. He teaches and writes about federal Indian law, tribal law, Native American history, constitutional law, federal courts, cyberspace law, copyrights and civil procedure. He also serves as Chief Justice of the Winnebago Supreme Court and as an Associate Justice of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court of Appeals, the Colorado River Indian Tribes Court of Appeals, the Hualapai Tribal Court of Appeals, and the Hopi Court of Appeals.