HISA unconstitutional

In a federal court case involving the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) that is being closely watched because it involves a trainer's allegations of a wrongful denial of Seventh Amendment rights to a jury trial, a judge in Florida on Thursday denied conditioner Phil Serpe's request for preliminary injunction in a lawsuit initiated last October against the HISA and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The civil complaint involves "banned substance" sanctions stemming from the alleged detection of clenbuterol in an Aug. 10, 2024, Saratoga Race Course winner from the...

Leroy Gessmann, who served as president of the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) from 2015 to 2021 and currently works as the Arizona HBPA's executive director, told commissioners at the Arizona Racing Commission (AZRC) meeting Thursday that regardless of the decision gets handed down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, both the HBPA and its opponents in a 2 1/2-year-old lawsuit to nullify the Horseracing and Safety Integrity Act (HISA) agree that the nation's highest court will eventually have to be called upon...

Parties on both sides of a Sixth Circuit United States Court of Appeals case that seeks to reverse a lower court's decision to dismiss a constitutional challenge of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) argued via written briefs Thursday as to whether or not a pro-HISA law passed at the tail end of 2022 renders as "moot" any constitutionality claims in the under-appeal lawsuit. The Jan. 12 briefs were filed in accordance with a Dec. 30 request from the Sixth Circuit to explain how the Dec. 29 signage of...

ARCI President Ed Martin joins this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss the recent news that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that HISA is unconstitutional.

For well over a year, we have been told that the HISA Act was legally bulletproof and within the parameters of the US Constitution. According to a unanimous decision of a three judge panel from both political parties issued last week, such assertions may not be so. The ARCI has not taken sides in this legal dispute, although some of our member agencies have as there are serious issues involving States rights, taxation without representation and commandeering that are at stake. The final outcome of the legal process may not...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday ruled that the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional because it "delegates unsupervised government power to a private entity," and thus "violates the private non-delegation doctrine." The Appeals Court order by a panel of three judges reverses a lower court's decision earlier this year that dismissed a constitutionality lawsuit initiated in 2021 by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA). The Nov. 18 order also remands the case back to U.S. District Court (Northern District...