Dustin Gouker, Nov 29, 2017
The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Christie vs. NCAA — better known as the New Jersey sports betting case — on Monday.
The case is about both states’ rights and sports gambling. Here’s a look at what you need to know about the case.
What’s Christie vs. NCAA about?
The case centers around a 2014 New Jersey law in which it partially repealed its own sports betting ban. That law was an attempt to allow the state’s casinos and horse betting tracks to offer sports wagering by working around a federal law — the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act — that largely bans sports betting. (It grandfathered in Nevada sports betting and limited forms of wagering in other states.)
PASPA gives standing to sports leagues and organizations — in addition to the Department of Justice — to challenge laws that they believe run counter to the law. The NCAA, the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and Major League Baseball used that power to challenge New Jersey’s law in court as illegal under the ban. So far those leagues have won every step of the way in the federal court system.
New Jersey is arguing that PASPA is unconstitutional, in that it commandeers states into acting on the federal government’s behalf. (Gov. Chris Christie‘s name is on the case because he signed the bill into law.) The nation’s highest court will try to determine which side is right, in its view.
While the state is using the law to offer sports betting, legal analysts believe the case could have potentially wide-ranging implications for states’ rights.