New Jersey Thumbs Nose At Supreme Court Justices
Added: July 7, 2014
Did you see the news this week coming from the United States Supreme Court? The highest court in the nation basically said “get outta here” with that nonsense. The court was referring to the appeal filed by the Governor Chris Christie.
This appeal was an attempt by New Jersey to allow sports betting. The legal team for New Jersey based their argument on a constitutionality issue. In other words, New Jersey claimed the federal law banning Internet gambling and sport betting in particular was in fact against the United States Constitution.
More specifically, New Jersey made the case, or more appropriately, tried to make the case, that the federal sports betting ban was a direct intrusion on state’s rights. Additionally, New Jersey argued that the federal ban effectively created a legal environment where there was unequal treatment applied to different states. Most likely, the legal team was referring to the state of Nevada which in fact does allow sports betting.
Although you may at this point think the case is closed and there is no room for any more discussion, there is in fact a late-breaking new addition to this story.
Apparently the legislators in New Jersey don’t take so kindly to the ‘feds’ telling them what they can and what they cannot do. In a hastily assembled legislative session, it didn’t take long for the state legislature to come out strongly against this Supreme Court ruling.
Taking the state’s motto of “Liberty and Prosperity” to heart both chambers of the New Jersey legislature deliberated and came together to draft a new bill. This bill would effectively legalize sports gambling at casinos and race tracks throughout the state much as it is already done in Nevada. Interestingly both chambers voted on and passed the bill with flying colors in record time. A scant three days after it’s introduction, this new bill is already on the way to Governor Chris Christie’s desk.
So far the Governor has not indicated if he will in fact sign the bill. However, those who have been following New Jersey and the online sports betting situation for a while like to point to the Governor’s quote after the Supreme Courts said no. Governor Chris Christies let it be known in so many words that “…they have said no, so we have to move on…” Well there you go. Let’s see what move on looks like in New Jersey.