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California Indian Casino Former Employees Sue for Workplace Harassment and DiscriminationA California Indian casino is at the center of a complicated legal controversy that tests the boundaries of tribal sovereignty and United States civil rights law.A suit has been filed by seven former employees of the Thunder Valley Casino, located in Placer County, California. The casino is owned by the United Auburn Indian Community. The former employees, who worked in a variety of jobs at the casino, accuse the casino of sexual harassment and assault, as well as age and gender discrimination. Debra Smith of the San Francisco- based Equal Rights Advocates is the attorney for the plaintiffs. The case, which is to be appealed, has been dismissed by the Placer Superior Court on the grounds that the tribe is a sovereign nation that is not subject to state and federal civil rights laws. Commissioner Margaret Wells ruled in a short statement: "This court lacks subject matter jurisdiction based on sovereign immunity." The lawyer for the casino, Howard Dickstein, said that the court's ruling was the obvious decision. "The Placer County court dismissed the case on the basis that the tribe is not subject to the state's Fair Employment and Housing Act - and that the tribe has immunity from civil suits in state court," Dickstein said last week. "It was not a surprising result," Dickstein added. Plaintiff attorney Smith said that she would appeal the ruling. "We definitely will go up to the appellate court, trying to show that it was improper for them not to give us an opportunity to set forth the theories arguing against sovereign immunity," she told reporters. In the meantime, the employees are pursuing the case against the non- Native American defendants, including former casino floor supervisor Curtis Broome and Station Casinos Inc., a Las- Vegas based company that oversees the casino for the tribe. Both of the defendants filed demurrers last week, asking to be removed from the case. Their requests will be considered at a hearing scheduled for March 7th. In a complaint brief, Smith argued that the casino and its partners are "hiding behind the United Auburn Indian Community's assertion of sovereign immunity," and contended that the civil rights of the former employees take legal precedence over the sovereignty of the Native American tribe. Smith also stated in the complaint that the case "raises important questions that the state and people of California must address to ensure that non-Native American citizens who accept employment in gaming casinos located on tribal lands receive the equal protection and due process of law guaranteed to all persons living in the United States." The suit's next court hearing is scheduled for February 28th.
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