HISA constitutional

For the second time in 2 1/2 years, the same panel of three judges on the Sixth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has affirmed the constitutionality of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) in a lawsuit spearheaded by the states of Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana. The case had alleged that the HISA Act gave a private corporation--the HISA Authority, which operates under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)--far too broad regulatory authority. The plaintiffs claimed that was a violation of the non-delegation...

In the first oral argument since the United States Supreme Court remanded three lawsuits related to the constitutionality of the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) back to their originating appeals courts five months ago, a panel of three judges on the Sixth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Wednesday heard from lawyers on both sides in a case that alleges the HISA Act gives a "private corporation broad regulatory authority." This same Sixth Circuit panel, back on Mar. 3, 2023, already upheld a lower court's...

A legal filing made Tuesday by horsemen who lost a decision last month in a federal appeals court means there are now three separate cases involving the constitutionality of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) vying for the attention of the Supreme Court of the United States. A group of plaintiffs led by Bill Walmsley, the president of the Arkansas Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), and Jon Moss, the executive director of the Iowa HBPA, on Oct. 15 filed a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to...

A 2 1/2-year-old legal fight led by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) to try and overturn the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) based on alleged constitutional flaws got distilled into one hour of oral arguments on Wednesday in the case's second go-round before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. As expected, lawyers for the two sides stuck to the finer points of constitutionality law, and there were only several passing references related to horse racing. The arguments centered on...

After a series of false starts, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act's (HISA) signature anti-doping and medication control (ADMC) program is now set to go into effect on May 22. Continuing to play out against this latest development are a handful of lawsuits seeking to derail the law—a complex legal landscape evolving at seemingly vertigo-inducing speed. In a ruling delivered last week, judge James Hendrix of the Lubbock Division of the Northern District of Texas found the version of the act amended by Congress at the end of last year...

The revamped Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) statute that got signed into law back in December was judged to be constitutional late on Thursday by the Texas federal district judge handling the case on remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. "Congress answered the call-identifying the three constitutional concerns that led the Fifth Circuit to hold HISA unconstitutional and rectifying each with the amendment," wrote United States District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix in his May 4 order out of the Northern District of...