A Wyoming Indian tribe lost a legal bid to be exempted from the mandate the Act, and must provide to all its employees.
The U.S. District Court for the District Wyoming dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Northern Arapaho Tribe, which employs over 0 people in a casino and retail stores. The tribe had sought to subsidize its employees’ purchases policies through the federal exchange rather than providing for them itself.
Judge Scott Skavdahl initially ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the Tribe’s request for an injunction against enforcement the mandate, because the requirement is enforced through a , and federal courts are prohibited from issuing an injunction against collection a .
However, the judge also considered the Tribe’s claim on its merits. He ruled that, while Native Americans are exempt from the ’s mandate, as an the Tribe was subject to the rule. He also held that the Tribe could not object to the mandate now, because it had failed to comment the regulation when it was first proposed.
“If Congress wished to exempt tribes from this mandate that otherwise might be reasonably construed as applying to them, it needed to do so explicitly,” Judge Skavdahl ruled.