Case: 1:25-cv-15406 Document #: 43-1 Filed: 01/30/26 Page 12 of 17 PageID #:378
In effect, Coinbase contends that the 2010 CEA amendments displaced state and tribal gaming regulations, nullified all tribal-state gaming compacts, legalized sports betting nationwide, and placed sports betting under the exclusive regulatory jurisdiction of the CFTC, all at a time when federal law broadly prohibited sports betting. This is unquestionably a “radical” and “fundamental” overhaul to both PASPA and IGRA, and certainly raises concerns of “economic and political significance.” This Court therefore has significant “reason to hesitate” and should require “clear congressional authorization” before even considering Coinbase’s preemption argument. Id. at 721, 724. 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). 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.” Id. at 484; see, e.g. , 18 U.S.C. §§ 1084, 1166, 1952, 1953, 1955 (incorporating state gambling prohibitions); Chicken Ranch , 42 F.4th at 1031 (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
12
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs