The federal government is not appealing a court decision that denied its request for more time to pass legislation restoring status to descendants of enfranchised First Nations.

That means the so-called Nicholas ruling will go into effect, though it will only apply to those with “sufficient ties” to B.C. — at least as it stands now.

Ryan Beaton, a partner at Juristes Power Law and the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in the case, said on Tuesday the government opted against appealing a decision from May that denied a six-month extension to pass legislation that would apply the Nicholas ruling nationwide.

In a statement to iPolitics, the office of Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty confirmed that the government doesn’t intend to appeal the court’s decision.

It added that the department has “made the necessary preparations to begin processing Indian status applications for affected individuals who reside in British Columbia or are members of First Nations located in British Columbia on June 13, the day the court’s decision takes effect.”

“Canada acknowledges the decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in the Nicholas case. We recognize that the enfranchisement provisions of the Indian Act are unconstitutional and that these provisions caused profound and lasting harms for First Nations individuals, families, and communities by denying identity, rights, and belonging,” the statement read.

READ MORE: Feds lose bid for court extension of Nicholas ruling

The 2025 ruling originally gave Ottawa until April this year to make the changes, and the government introduced Bill S-2 to comply with the decision.

But it has faced an uphill battle in Parliament after senators passed an amendment that would end the controversial second-generation cutoff, which denies Indian status to people who had a non-First Nation parent and grandparent.

The Senate amendment would allow status to be passed on to a child if at least one of their parents were recognized as having status.

Gull-Masty said the government supports ending the cutoff but requires more time to consult, noting the one-parent rule isn’t unanimously supported by First Nations. Critics have called this a stall tactic that allows the Liberals to put off meaningful changes.

BACKGROUND: Bill S-2 unlikely to pass before summer recess

The Nicholas ruling is only going into effect in B.C. because the decision came from a court in that province. However, lawyers for the government acknowledged the existing rule was unconstitutional.

Beaton told iPolitics that he’s reached out to Indigenous Services Canada for clarity on how they’re assessing the sufficient ties to B.C. test, but said he understood that it would cover “any applicant resident in B.C. or asserting membership in a B.C. First Nation.”

He’s repeatedly called on the government to allow the ruling to go into effect nationwide, but said Ottawa has rejected his offer.

Beaton said he plans to to “file a claim in Federal Court in the coming weeks to seek an order that is unambiguously nationwide in application.”