American sports leagues in favor of PASPA
Ahead of the oral hearing that will take place on December 4, representatives from national sports leagues showed support to the Protection Act.
US.- National sports leagues have historically showed support to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), as they claim that the federal law reigns over the state law. Representatives from the National Collegiate Athletes Association, the NBA, NHL and NFL gathered and showed its support to PASPA today in testimony at the US Supreme Court.
Paul Clement, attorney that represents the leagues, talked about New Jersey’s claims that PASPA is unconstitutional: “New Jersey contends that PASPA violates the anti-commandeering doctrine because it requires New Jersey to maintain its pre-existing prohibitions on sports gambling. But PASPA does no such thing.”
He also said that PASPA contains no affirmative command of any kind. It does not require states to maintain, enact, enforce, or do anything. “Instead, under PASPA states must simply refrain from taking certain actions, i.e., from operating sports-gambling schemes or from authorising third parties to do so in their stead,” he added.
The leagues claim that the federal law have more weight than state laws, therefore the argument made by New Jersey that each state should determine whether they allow sports betting or not is unconstitutional.
“At the end of the day, New Jersey’s real complaint is that Congress has forbidden it from enacting the specific policy it prefers – namely, state-sponsored sports gambling at its state-licensed casinos and racetracks. And make no mistake, Congress has done that. But Congress does not commandeer the states just because it limits their policy options, and nothing in the Tenth Amendment prevents Congress from using its commerce power to pre-empt state laws that contravene federal policy. The difference between permissible pre-emption and impermissible commandeering is that the former precludes certain state action, while the latter commands it. PASPA falls comfortably in the former, permissible camp,” added Clement.
