Overview
In a complaint filed last week, a group of American Indian tribes sued for a declaration that they have the sovereign right to conduct lending businesses without interference from New York State officials. The suit appears to be a response to the New York Attorney General’s suit, filed in state court earlier this month, claiming that certain tribal “payday” lending businesses were charging usurious interest. The federal complaint alleges that New York state has used “the big stick of government power,” to try to shut down the tribal businesses, “in brazen disregard to the inherent sovereignty that these nations have had since before the founding of the United States.” The case is before Judge Sullivan.
