A federal judge said this week that he intends to decide the fate of the Shinnecock Indian Nation's plans for a casino on the East End, sidestepping the typically long federal review, and that the federal government will have to participate in the lawsuit if it wants to have any input on the Shinnecocks' eligibility for a gaming facility.

At a hearing on Monday afternoon, in the federal courthouse in Islip, Judge Thomas C. Platt said that the federal government should participate in the eventual legal arguments, since they would normally decide such an issue. The judge ordered the federal government to be included in a lawsuit challenging the Nation's right to build a casino, which was filed by New York State and Southampton Town last fall.

The judge said he would allow U.S. attorneys to opt out of the lawsuit, as they have requested, though only on the understanding that they would then be precluded from any further comment in the matter, regardless of his decision.

Judge Platt said he was baffled by the federal attorneys' request to be excluded from a case in which a decision will be made on an issue that is within their jurisdiction.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Mulry told the judge that the federal government would prefer to be released from the case but would like to reserve the right to comment, or rule, on the tribe's federal recognition status at any later date—because it does not believe that the judge has the authority to grant federal recognition status on his own.

The judge said that allowing such an option would effectively render the entire trial centering on the lawsuit academic if the feds could later say that they would issue their own position.

Judge Platt told the U.S. attorneys that he will allow them 10 days to reconsider their request to be released from the case.

Deputy Southampton Town Attorney Eileen Powers said after the hearing that the town would prefer that the federal government remain a party to the lawsuit because of its past expertise in handling Native American federal recognition applications.

Judge Platt has said that a federal Court of Appeals ruling gives him the authority to decide whether the tribe should receive federal recognition, the required first step for all tribes seeking to develop gaming facilities, even though such a decision has never been made solely by a judge. Other Native American tribes that have received federal recognition had to navigate a detailed genealogical review by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, a process that commonly takes more than a decade to complete.

If the Shinnecocks were forced to undertake such a review, it is expected it would take as long as 18 years for them to receive federal recognition. Judge Platt said that he will not force the tribe to wait that long.

The state and federal attorneys have said they fervently disagree with the judge's interpretation of the appeals court ruling, one that he says gives him the power to decide a tribe's federal recognition status.

Mr. Mulry said that to excuse the Shinnecocks from a process that so many other tribes have had to negotiate would be unfair to those other tribes, and to those in the midst of the long review process now.

In another motion addressed at Monday's hearing, Judge Platt also asked the Shinnecocks to present the court with more specific details about a request they have made to be allowed to clear trees from an additional 10 acres of land on the Westwoods property, where the casino has been proposed. Tribal officials say the additional clearing—five acres were cleared last summer, before a court-ordered injunction stopped work—would allow the tribe to use the property for a parking field during the U.S. Open golf tournament this June and for other temporary commercial events to generate income.

Shinnecock attorney Christopher Lunding said the tribe wants to plant grass in the cleared area so that it can charge for public parking on the site during the six-day tournament and would not embark on any permanent development of the property. He said the tribe would try to lease the property for events, such as benefits, and tribal gatherings.

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