First, Congress must be clear when it “alters the federal-state framework by permitting federal encroachment upon a traditional state power.” Solid Waste Agency v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng’rs , 531 U.S. 159, 172–73 (2001). Here, gaming regulation, and even sports-betting regulation specifically, has been understood to be within traditional state power. See Murphy v. NCAA , 584 U.S. 453, 474, 481–85 (2018) (holding that PASPA prohibited states from authorizing sports betting and therefore violated the anticommandeering rule, which specifically protects state sovereignty for matters over which states traditionally regulate, such as gaming and sports betting, against unlawful acts from Congress demanding states act in particular ways); see also United States v. Washington , 879 F.2d 1400, 1401 (6th Cir. 1989) (“The enactment of gambling laws is clearly a proper exercise of the state’s police power in an effort to promote the public welfare.”). As the Supreme Court noted in Murphy , Congress has long structured federal criminal law to “respect the policy choices of the people of each State on the controversial issue of gambling.” 584 U.S. at 484; see, e.g. , 18 U.S.C. §§ 1084, 1166, 1952, 1953, 1955 (incorporating state gambling prohibitions); Chicken Ranch , 42 F.4th at 1032 (explaining that IGRA “strike[s] a delicate balance” between tribal and state sovereignty over gaming (quoting Pauma Band of Luiseno Mission Indians v. California , 813 F.3d 1155, 1160 (9th Cir. 2015))). And even when Congress chose to prohibit sports betting nationally through PASPA, it did so through state regulation, rather than by directly regulating private actors. See Murphy , 584 U.S. at 484–85. Similarly, courts have long recognized tribes’ inherent sovereign authority to regulate gaming on their lands. See Cabazon , 480 U.S. at 207–14. Though IGRA imposes limited restrictions on this authority, IGRA still broadly advances tribes’ “exclusive right to regulate [and offer] gaming activity” (including sports betting) on their Indian lands as a means of promoting tribal economic development and self-determination. See 25 U.S.C. §§ 2701(5), 2702(2); W.
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Case 3:26-cv-00034 Document 40-1 Filed 01/23/26 Page 16 of 22 PageID #: 453
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