New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the state of New Jersey have filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court challenging a lower federal court’s ruling overturning the state’s sports betting law.
The New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association has also filed an appeal with the court.
Representing New Jersey will be former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, who has been handling the appeals for the state through its latest attempt to institute sports betting.
A federal appeals court struck down the state’s latest attempt to find a way around a federal prohibition on sports betting. The petition charges that the ruling violates constructional provisions for state sovereignty.
This is the second time the state has tried to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, or PASPA, that bans sports betting, but exempts four states—most notably Nevada—that had a form of sports betting prior to its 1992 passing.
In 2012, the state challenged the law directly, but eventually lost in federal court. The High Court then declined to hear the state’s appeal. This time the state tried to circumvent the ban by allowing self-regulated sports betting at racetracks and casinos by essentially repealing its own laws against sports betting.
The new appeal again charges that PASPA is and violates the “anti-commandeering doctrine” under the Tenth Amendment.
“This federal takeover of New Jersey’s legislative apparatus is dramatic, unprecedented, and in direct conflict with this Court’s Tenth Amendment jurisprudence barring Congress from controlling how the States regulate private parties,” the appeal reads. “Never before has congressional power been construed to allow the federal government to dictate whether…a State may repeal…its own state-law prohibitions on private conduct.”
