constitutionality

With three separate requests involving three different federal appeals court cases pending before the Supreme Court of the United States to take up the question of whether or not the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) is constitutional, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Wednesday told the nation's highest court that the one involving a lawsuit spearheaded by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) is the one that should take precedence. In two separate legal filings Nov. 6, the Authority made its case for the Supreme Court...

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...

The Horseracing and Safety Integrity Authority (HISA) made it clear on Monday that by Oct. 16, it intends to ask the United States Supreme Court to step in and decide the current HISA constitutionality conflict that exists because of clashing opinions out of two separate federal appeals courts. The move potentially sets up a final say, perhaps as early as 2025, on a legal showdown that has split factions of the Thoroughbred industry since HISA's initial passage in 2020. One week after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth...

The July 5 opinion out of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that declared that part of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional is generating legal filings from both sides in a related case awaiting a decision in the Eighth Circuit. Both the plaintiffs/appellants in the Eighth Circuit case (led by Bill Walmsley, the president of the Arkansas HBPA, and Jon Moss, the executive director of the Iowa HBPA) and the defendants/appellees (executives with the HISA Authority and the Federal Trade Commission [FTC]),...

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...

A lawsuit spearheaded by the states of Louisiana and West Virginia that is trying to derail the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) via alleged constitutional violations was dealt a setback Wednesday when a federal judge recommended that an amended version of the complaint be stricken from the record. That recommendation, if it gets put into place by a final order, would bar 14 individual Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) affiliates, plus a wide swath of states, racing commissions, and individual racetracks from becoming parties to the 14-month-old lawsuit....

The North American Association of Racetrack Veterinarians (NAARV) is arguing for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) on constitutional grounds because the law allegedly "places the racetrack veterinarians at a greater risk than other covered persons" from a due process standpoint. Chief among the assertions made by the NAARV in a 51-page "friend of the court" brief filed July 14 are that "initial findings of wrongdoing by a member of NAARV, pursuant to HISA, result in a...

The Arkansas-based lawsuit filed six weeks ago that is the most recent among five separate federal complaints attempting to derail the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) via alleged constitutionality claims was broadly rebuffed Monday in separate legal filings by the defendants in the case, who are executives with the HISA Authority and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The plaintiffs, led by Bill Walmsley, president of the Arkansas Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA), and Jon Moss, the executive director of the Iowa HBPA, had asked a judge in United...

"As a former instructor of constitutional and criminal law at the United States Military Academy, I implored upon the cadets that we are a nation of laws, not of emotional disinformation. Article III of the Constitution gives the courts the task of interpreting the laws to determine constitutionality and that process is exactly what is happening right now with HISA. "HISA is the law of the land and has been challenged in the courts. In this country constitutionality is not determined by those who may disagree with the language of...

As the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals weighs a motion by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) Authority to vacate its recent opinion that HISA is unconstitutional, a plaintiff team led by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) on Friday urged the court not to do that, arguing that a new federal law passed two weeks ago to amend the operative language of HISA "does not fix" three alleged constitutionality issues. "This Court's opinion identified three distinct problems with HISA: 'An agency does not have...

Parties on both sides of a Sixth Circuit United States Court of Appeals case that seeks to reverse a lower court's decision to dismiss a constitutional challenge of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) argued via written briefs Thursday as to whether or not a pro-HISA law passed at the tail end of 2022 renders as "moot" any constitutionality claims in the under-appeal lawsuit. The Jan. 12 briefs were filed in accordance with a Dec. 30 request from the Sixth Circuit to explain how the Dec. 29 signage of...

Edited Press Release Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry will be the keynote speaker at the National HBPA's annual conference Mar. 6-10 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans' historic French Quarter, the horsemen's organization announced. The conference, being hosted by the Louisiana HPBA, takes place in conjunction with the Association of Racing Commissioners International (ARCI) Annual Meeting and Racing Integrity Conference. Landry's keynote address is to be delivered Mar. 7. He has been at the forefront of states challenging the constitutionality of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) and...