"The judicial branch obviously overstepped its bounds in this case," says state Rep. Mike O'Brien in the statement. The court's Aug. 22 ruling found that then-Mayor John Street acted properly last December in granting riparian rights via a "submerged lands license" to HSP Gaming LP, developer of the SugarHouse project. Conversely, the court determined that the current mayor, Michael Nutter, erred in revoking SugarHouse's riparian rights on grounds that only the General Assembly has authority to approve the lease of submerged waterfront land to private entities.

The four lawmakers—O'Brien, state Rep. William Keller and state Sens. Vince Fumo and Mike Stack—say they're particularly troubled by the court's claim that the submerged lands license cannot be revoked. "It is a contradiction to say that the city has the authority vested in it to give the license but not take it away," says O'Brien in the statement. "If that is really true, then no one has the authority to protect the public interest."

Fumo charges that the court's decision "has effectively created a special 'casino class' that is treated differently from all other forms of commercial development along the waterfront. It is a class that, according to the court, is immune from making payments to the commonwealth for the land, and unlike all other similar conveyances, it is a class that receives a property right to public lands in perpetuity."