A federal court judge on Tuesday ordered the Aquinnah Wampanoag Indian tribe to halt construction work on a building the tribe says it hopes to open as a casino on Martha’s Vineyard.
The tribe earlier this month announced its intention to convert a 6,500-square-foot community center on its reservation on the island into a casino, and hired a contractor to begin work.
But the town of Aquinnah said that the tribe had not acquired a building permit, and that even if it had, zoning restrictions prohibit a building a casino there.
To enforce its cease-and-desist order to halt the construction, the town filed for an injunction in US District Court. During an hourlong hearing on Tuesday, a lawyer for the tribe argued that local authorities have only limited jurisdiction over the tribe. The lawyer also maintained that the tribe has the right to operate a casino under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, and that the town cannot deny that right.
But Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV ruled that the tribe is still subject to the requirement that it obtain a building permit.
“Rules apply until proved otherwise,” he said.
Saylor emphasized that his ruling was a very narrow one, touching on only the issue of a building permit, and a temporary one. He is expected to issue a much broader and long-lasting ruling next month, when the two sides — the tribe and the town — return to court.
At that time, Saylor is expected to rule on a complicated set of facts and law that ultimately will bear on whether the tribe has the right to open a casino on Martha’s Vineyard.
The town — with the backing of the state — says the tribe explicitly agreed to be bound by local ordinances in a 1983 agreement that granted the tribe clear title to a large swath of land on Martha’s Vineyard that had been long claimed by both the tribe and private owners. The tribe in that agreement also disavowed operating a casino.
Congress voted to approve the land settlement agreement in 1987. But a year later, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. By doing so, argued Scott D. Crowell, the lawyer for the tribe, Congress preempted the 1987 agreement, making the restrictive provisions of the agreement no longer applicable to the tribe.
Crowell said the town was using the building permit issue “as a way to stop the tribe from” opening a casino, which he said the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act does not allow.
“This is all about gaming,” he said of the town’s insistence on a building permit.
Ronald H. Rappaport, a lawyer representing the town, took a different view, which was ultimately supported by the judge.
“We are looking to uphold the laws of the town,” Rappaport said. “We can’t carve out an exception. We can’t act lawlessly.”
Sean P. Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @spmurphyboston.