Case 2:25-cv-01541-JCM-DJA Document 1 Filed 08/19/25 Page 15 of 26
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Kalshi’s customers or indirectly to Kalshi from Robinhood’s customers—are subject to the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction, and Nevada law is preempted to the extent it purports to regulate those transactions. 49. The Constitution and laws of the United States “shall be the supreme Law of the Land,” U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 2, and accordingly, “Congress has the power to preempt state law.” Crosby v. Nat. Foreign Trade Council , 530 U.S. 363, 372 (2000). Federal law can preempt state law expressly, through a statement to that effect in the statute itself, or impliedly, through either field preemption or conflict preemption. Field preemption exists where Congress manifests an intent to occupy exclusively an entire field of regulation. See Fidelity Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. De la Cuesta , 458 U.S. 141, 153 (1982). Conflict preemption exists where compliance with federal and state law is “a physical impossibility” or when “state law stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of the full purposes and objectives of Congress.” Id. (internal quotation omitted). 50. The statutory language of the CEA, its legislative history and the comprehensive regulatory framework it sets out demonstrate that Congress deliberately preempted state law. Whether analyzed as express or implied preemption, the scope of preemption is the field of commodity futures and swaps trading, including event contract trading, on CFTC-designated exchanges. 51. The CEA provides expressly that the CFTC “shall have exclusive jurisdiction” over commodity futures and swaps trading on CFTC-designated exchanges. 7 U.S.C. § 2(a)(1)(A). Express provisions of this type are regularly held to preempt state law. See, e.g. , BNSF Ry. Co. v. Cal. Dep’t of Tax & Fee Admin. , 904 F.3d 755, 765-66 (9th Cir. 2018) (describing statute’s grant of “exclusive” jurisdiction as a “broad and general” preemption provision); Slaney v. Int’l Amateur Athletic Fed’n , 244 F.3d 580, 594-95 (7th Cir. 2001) (holding that statute’s “exclusive jurisdiction” provision preempts state law claims). 52. This express preemption provision includes event contracts, which are “transactions involving swaps or contracts of sale of a commodity for future delivery,” over
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