The Martin Township Board Wednesday adopted a resolution to file an amicus brief along with Wayland Township in U.S. Supreme Court in the lengthy Patchak v. Zinke case involving the Gun Lake Casino.

The Supreme Court last May agreed to hear a long-running case affecting the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe. The web site indianz.com said the action threatens to undermine the status of the tribe’s successful gaming facility just three miles south of Wayland. Tribal leaders had hoped all the legal wrangling was over and last spring unveiled the $76 million expansion of the Gun Lake Casino.

There’s little danger, however, that the verdict of the case, known as Patchak v. Zinke, will cause the casino to close. It has been operating without incident since 2011 despite the uncertainty.

Court rulings throughout have been favorable to the casino and Gun Lake Tribe, but the Supreme Court has agreed to take up a major issue —whether a federal law that was written to protect the casino from litigation violates the U.S. Constitution. The ruling could stop tribes from turning to Congress for help with land-into-trust issues.

The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians secured bipartisan support for S.1603, the Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act. The law, besides confirming that the site of the casino is in trust, ordered federal courts to “promptly dismiss” the Patchak lawsuit.

But David Patchak, who lives three miles from the casino, has protested, insisting Congress overstepped its powers without changing the laws that affect the underlying issues in his case.

For example, he and his supporters and attorneys have argued that the tribe cannot follow the land-into-trust process at all as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Carcieri v. Salazar.

Indianz.com said in Carcieri, the court held that the Bureau of Indian Affairs can only place land into trust for those tribes that were “under federal jurisdiction” in 1934. The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band’s status wasn’t formalized until 1999, long after that date.

Martin Township, in its brief, will affirm that it has been the beneficiary of the casino’s revenue sharing program, which this past year totaled $30,000.

In other business at Wednesday night’s meeting, the Township Board:

• Voted to amend the cemetery lot purchase agreement and voted to have a trailer replace sheds that have been removed from cemetery property. The trailer will be used to store tools and miscellaneous cemetery supplies.

• Agreed to pay local firefighters $17 per hour to attend a state-mandated class next month on radio operations. Chief Earl Wykstra indicated the total cost will be $2,448, which will come from the fire department’s sinking fund.