Case 1:25-cv-14723 Document 1 Filed 08/19/25 Page 8 of 28 PageID: 8
24. In 1974, Congress passed a series of amendments to update the CEA’s regulatory framework and established the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”), which is empowered to oversee and regulate commodity futures and (since 2010) swaps trading under the CEA. Congress intended to centralize regulatory authority with the CFTC to avoid the “total chaos” that could ensue if states attempted to regulate the futures markets, thereby subjecting exchanges to different regulations. Hearings Before the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, United States Senate, on S. 2485, S. 2587, S. 2837 and H.R. 13113, 93d Cong., 2d Sess. 685 (1974) (“Senate Hearings”) (statement of Sen. Clark); see also Am. Agric. Movement, Inc. v. Bd. of Trade of City of Chicago , 977 F.2d 1147, 1156 (7th Cir. 1992) (setting forth legislative history of the CFTC Act of 1974), abrogated on other grounds by Time Warner Cable v. Doyle , 66 F.3d 867, 875 (7th Cir. 1995). Accordingly, Congress put “all exchanges and all persons in the industry under the same set of rules and regulations for the protection of all concerned.” H.R. Rep. No. 93-975, at 79 (1974). Indeed, Congress considered adding but ultimately removed from the bill’s final language a provision of the CEA that would have preserved parallel state authority over futures trading. See 120 Cong. Rec. 30,464 (1974) (statements of Sens. Curtis and Talmadge). As described below, the CEA was further amended by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376, which brought swaps within the coverage of the CEA and added a special rule about event contracts. See 7 U.S.C. § 7a-2(c)(5)(C)(i). 25. The CEA provides that the CFTC has “exclusive jurisdiction” over transactions involving event contracts—which, as described below, are swaps or contracts of sale of a commodity for future delivery—traded on registered exchanges (known as “designated contract markets”): “The Commission shall have exclusive jurisdiction . . . with respect to
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