The Mashantucket Pequot tribal nation has appealed a federal court ruling that derailed a Connecticut joint venture tribal casino project.

On Wednesday, Politico reported that the Mashantucket Pequots had filed an appeal of last month’s ruling by US District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Rudolph Contreras, who dismissed a legal challenge of the federal Department of the Interior’s (DOI) refusal to approve the joint venture casino project.

That casino was to be built by the Mashantucket Pequot (operators of the Foxwoods Casino Resort) and the Mohegan tribe (operator of the state’s Mohegan Sun casino) off tribal lands near the town of East Windsor along Connecticut’s northern border. The tribes planned the casino as a buffer against MGM Resorts’ new MGM Springfield casino in southern Massachusetts.

The two tribes, along with Connecticut’s state government, sued the DOI last December for failing to observe its own rules for responding to tribal requests to amend state gaming compacts. This summer, the DOI’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) finally okayed the Mohegan’s amended compact but kept mum regarding the Mashantucket.