LA Attorney General Predicts Additional HISA Litigation

Two people at the forefront of litigation that aims to halt the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority said March 7 that they expect the case to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court, where they predicted the legislation that paved the way for HISA's creation would be found to be unconstitutional. Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry and Daniel Suhr, managing attorney for the Liberty Justice Center, predicted that outcome while speaking with an assembly of horsemen and racing regulators Tuesday. Landry, who brought suit against HISA in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Louisiana, was the keynote speaker on the first of three days of panel discussions and presentations at the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association conference being held in New Orleans in conjunction with the Association of Racing Commissioners International, an umbrella group of pari-mutuel racing regulators. The National HBPA and many of its members, as well as some ARCI members, are involved in litigation against HISA. "If we don't get this thing struck down, you better have this meeting in probably the dining room—and I mean the small dining room here at the Monteleone," Landry said. "It will be a bunch of folks who have more money in their pockets than they know what to do with. And they're going to control the tracks and horse racing, and the rest of us really won't be able to enjoy the sport … This law is actually designed to eliminate the very fabric of horse racing. And so we stood up. "I said, 'We are going to keep filing suits, and we're going to find a way to bring this thing to the U.S. Supreme Court if we have to. Guess what? We are there. And I'm glad we're there. I know the Sixth Circuit decision (upholding HISA, in contrast to a Fifth Circuit appellate court ruling) was not all that great for us. But quite frankly, I think it was. Because it is going to absolutely force this case before the United States Supreme Court. "This in my opinion, outside of horse racing, is actually one of the most important cases that will go before the Court this century. If this law is upheld, there is nothing that is out of reach of the federal government. There is no industry. There is no activity. There is nothing those boys in Washington can't lay their hands on … I don't believe horse racing is one size fits all. I'm not about to tell folks in Florida or New York or Kentucky how they should conduct their horse racing. And I don't want them to come down to Louisiana and tell me how we should." A Tuesday afternoon panel offered concepts that participants said could lead to uniformity without vesting so much control and power in one entity and still using the existing racing commissions. "As we all look through a different lens now, something has to be established for uniformity," said National HBPA CEO Eric Hamelback. "We want to make it constitutional and we want to make sure the right participants are helping to make the decisions. I see it as the right participants are in this room. … We want uniformity based on science. We want it based on peer-reviewed research. We feel the way the legislation was drafted, it doesn't lean toward being based on science. I think there's a lot of opinion in there." Hamelback came back to the compact idea when he wrapped up the day's session. He said there are several Congressmen, "bipartisan and bicameral, that are very interested in a repeal of HISA. But they also are just as interested in moving something forward that is driven from the ground up, using the state commission infrastructure. "Basically, what we are considering is an example of the federal interstate compact. The suggestion is a board of directors made up of nine individuals, five of them set by the states that have the most racing dates. It doesn't matter what breed. The members of the compact would then elect the other four. "From there we've also suggested emphatically that there be three scientific advisory committees—one for each major racing breed—and a fourth committee, a safety committee. Looking at some of the same sort of structures that we've seen with HISA, we think there is a model there. We have recommended that there be funding from the government, funneled through the United States Department of Agriculture and they be involved with equine research... The ultimate enforcement, we feel like it still comes from the racing commissions and the structure we have now. We don't have to reinvent the wheel." Earlier in the day, Ed Martin, president of ARCI, said a compact could be a workable alternative "so as not to bankrupt an industry by replicating things already in place. "... ARCI has proposed interstate compacts in the past as a way to avoid the federal government getting into something that has been handled by the states," he said. "It's welcome that the HBPA now has interest in this."