BARTER AND CHARTER 
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Lobis has ruled against eight taxpayers upset over the City Council’s practice of earmarking funds for nonexistent groups that were later distributed to real organizations. The taxpayers wanted to convene an official judicial inquiry into the affair, but according to The New York Law Journal Lobis said such an inquiry lies outside the grounds permitted under a provision of the City Charter. Civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, who represents the taxpayers, said an “appeal is being seriously considered … Our concern is that the underlying facts and truth about the use of fictitious organizations will not be revealed and there will be very little accountability on the part of the elected and appointed officials who carried out the scheme.” The City Charter provision invoked by the taxpayers appeals only to bringing “acts of corruption to the public’s attention,” Lobis wrote in her decision, whereas in the current situation no allegation has been made that “funds were ever disbursed to any fictitious organizations.”

PULLING ALL STOPS 
The Buffalo News reports that lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department have asked Western District Judge William Skretny to refer a dispute concerning the Seneca Indian Nation’s construction of a casino in Buffalo back to the National Indian Gaming Commission — an agency that has already approved the project. Earlier this month, Skretny ruled that the Senecas could not operate a casino on their Buffalo land, but the Feds say a new interpretation of Indian gaming law issued in May by the Interior Department — and apparently unknown to Skretny when he issued his ruling — changes things. Under the new interpretation, the government says that “restricted fee lands” — like the nine-acre parcel that the Senecas own in Buffalo — can be used for casino gambling. “I’m quite optimistic that the new rule makes a dramatic difference,” said Seneca attorney Laurence H. Tribe. “Now that the new rule has been called to the judge’s attention, it would be very difficult for him not to give it significant weight.” Responded Cornelius D. Murray, the lead attorney for casino opponents: “This is so transparently desperate that it’s almost laughable. It’s a joke, an absolute farce …. The government is now saying, ‘Judge, the position we took for six years on this issue was wrong. Please let us reconsider.’”