What this document is
Filed on 14 November 2016, this amicus brief urged the Supreme Court to take up Christie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, after New Jersey's attempt to legalize sports betting was blocked by the Third Circuit. The American Gaming Association, represented by Sidley Austin LLP, argued that the federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unconstitutionally commandeers state legislatures by freezing 1992-era prohibitions in place regardless of what a state's own voters or lawmakers later prefer.
The brief leans on the Supreme Court's own anti-commandeering line of cases, among them New York v. United States and Printz v. United States, to argue that Congress may regulate sports betting directly or leave it alone, but cannot force states to keep laws on the books they would rather repeal. It also makes a policy case: the AGA estimated that Americans illegally wagered roughly 149 billion dollars on sports each year under the federal ban, revenue it says flows in part to organized crime, and pointed to Nevada's regulated market as evidence that legalization curbs the black market rather than expanding gambling overall.
Why it is cited
A commentary on sports-betting law cited the brief for its federalism argument, that federal courts cannot enjoin a state from repealing a law that neither violates the Constitution nor touches a matter federal law has pre-empted.
Where to find it
Available from SCOTUSblog.