A court decision announced Tuesday might bring the Catawba Indian Tribe a step closer to building a multimillion-dollar, high-stakes gaming facility in Santee.

But the state’s attorney general vowed to “aggressively and immediately fight” the decision, all the way to the state Supreme Court if necessary.

Special Circuit Court Judge Joseph M. Strickland ruled that federal law “is not ambiguous with respect to the tribe’s right to operate video poker and similar electronic play devices on its reservation” even though they’re illegal elsewhere in the state.

He wrote that the U.S. Constitution “protect(s) the tribe’s rights from state court decisions” that interfere with, or unilaterally seek to change, the tribe’s 1993 land settlement agreement with the state, “even when such court decisions are grounded in state law.”

The tribe filed the lawsuit against the state and Henry D. McMaster in his official capacity as attorney general.

“The first rule of judicial review of a statute must be to read the statute as it has been written, and not as a party wishes it had been written,” Strickland wrote.

“This court cannot rewrite the Settlement Agreement or State Act to bring them into conformity with what the defendants wish they said,” he wrote.

Strickland quoted at length from the affidavit of A. Crawford Clarkson Jr., who had been appointed by then-Gov. Carroll Campbell as the state’s lead negotiator to settle the tribe’s land claims.

Clarkson had said the final agreement in 1993 “provided that the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act would not be applicable to the Catawba Indian Nation.”

“In exchange for foregoing the rights under (IGRA), the (tribe) was granted the right to two high-stakes bingo operations and the right to operate video poker and similar electronic play devices on the Catawba Indian Reservation ... irrespective of whether such machines were illegal elsewhere in South Carolina,” the judge wrote.

“Congress has specifically prohibited the state from making unilateral amendments in the Settlement Agreement or State Act,” the judge wrote.

“Any change in the Settlement Agreement and State Act is void unless made with the consent of both the state and the tribe as required by Congress ...”

However, in 2003, the Catawbas did seek status under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and said they would not establish the bingo operation in Santee without it.

After their bid for IGRA status was unsuccessful, the tribe returned to its original gambit: offering to forsake video gambling on its reservation in exchange for being allowed to operate a Santee establishment under rules that mirror IGRA.

The Catawbas reiterated that offer as recently as Dec. 6, in a resolution approved by the tribe’s executive committee: “... in exchange for the right of the tribe to operate electronic bingo identical to that authorized under IGRA in Orangeburg County, the tribe would forego its right to operate video poker and similar electronic play devices on its reservation ....”

The tribe asked the General Assembly to pass legislation modifying the Settlement Agreement and State Act whereby “the tribe would surrender its right to operate video poker and similar electronic play devices on its reservation in exchange for the right to operate in Orangeburg County electronic bingo identical to that authorized other tribes (in other states) by IGRA.”

The committee said it would “delay initiating the operation of video poker on its reservation for a period sufficient in the determination of the Executive Committee to enable the General Assembly of South Carolina to adopt and the governor to sign, or otherwise allow to become law, a modification of the Settlement Agreement and State Act ....”

The resolution said the tribe “treasures and values the support of the Santee and Orangeburg communities and desires to assist in the economic development of an area that has demonstrated support for the tribe’s proposal and its effort to obtain legislation to make the project possible.”

Bender said an economic analysis prepared jointly for the tribe and Orangeburg County projected the economic impact of the tribe’s bingo facility on the area to be proportional to the impact of the BMW manufacturing facility in the Upstate.

The resolution lists some key supporters: State Sens. John Matthews and Brad Hutto; state Reps. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, Jerry Govan Jr., Harry L. Ott Jr. and Thomas N. Rhoad; Orangeburg County Council; Santee City Council; the editorial board of The Times and Democrat; the Orangeburg business community and U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn.

But the gaming enterprise has powerful opponents as well.

State Attorney General Henry McMaster said he will ask for “an immediate re-hearing before Judge Strickland, and if necessary, an expedited review by the state Supreme Court.

“We disagree strongly with Judge Strickland’s order, but remain confident that the state will prevail in the end.” he said.

“There is a larger issue at hand,” McMaster said. “By their own admission, the Catawbas are using Judge Strickland’s order and the threat of video poker as leverage to force the people of South Carolina, through their General Assembly, into authorizing the tribe’s operation of an electronic bingo casino in Santee.”

“This is an unsavory tactic,” McMaster said. “In the coming days, I will ask the General Assembly to quickly pass a joint resolution condemning this tactic and stating firm opposition to any and all efforts to reintroduce casino-style electronic gambling in South Carolina.”

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