LaFalce made his comments as he announced a leadership role with Citizens for a Better Buffalo, an anti-casino organization. The Seneca Nation of Indians is planning a casino on a 9-acre site near the downtown Cobblestone District.

"I'm doing this because I consider what the Interior Department has done, and the Seneca Nation has done, to be a very pernicious perversion of the law, and it cannot stand," LaFalce said.

"I think this is an open-and-shut case. I do not think we will see casino gambling in Buffalo."

The Baird Foundation also announced it is pledging financial support for the anti-casino efforts, joining an earlier decision by the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation.

"The Baird Foundation seeks to identify and support initiatives that improve quality of life in our community; a casino is not consistent with this goal," the foundation said in a statement.

LaFalce and then-Rep. Amo Houghton, R-Corning, were co-authors of the Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990 to right a wrong over a lease claim in Salamanca. LaFalce said neither of them ever dreamed the law would later be used to promote gambling in Buffalo.

"We never contemplated the lease claims of the Senecas, which we felt were very valid, would be used to promote casino gambling in the heart of the second-largest city of New York. I think it's ludicrous to make that suggestion or interpretation."

The Settlement Act is one of three laws the lawsuit, filed by the citizens group in January 2006 in U.S. District Court, claims were improperly applied.

In 2002, then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the Settlement Act prevented her from rejecting the Senecas' casino deal with the state. The casino was allowed under terms of the Indian Gambling Regulatory Act, but LaFalce believes Norton's refusal to take action will make it easier for the court to challenge the ruling.

"It was a nondecision result. Since [Norton] punted, the court owes little to no deference whatsoever," LaFalce said.

LaFalce cited congressional testimony in September by the department's inspector general, Earl DeVaney, as supporting the department's legacy of incompetence and corruption under Norton's stewardship. The inspector general painted a picture of gross managerial irresponsibility and lack of accountability.

"Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes in the highest levels of the Department of the Interior," DeVaney said. He cited "complex efforts to hide the true nature of agreements with outside parties [and] intricate deviations from statutory, regulatory and policy requirements to reach a predetermined end."

e-mail: msommer@buffnews.com