Columbus, OH – According to Thoroughbred Daily News, officials from the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority and Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday (Jan. 3) filed documents to have previous rulings against them vacated and the cases reheard.

According to the story by T.D. Thornton, “Citing the year-end passage into law of a bill that included language giving the Federal Trade Commission more rule-making authority in the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, officials from HISA and the FTC who are defendants in two lawsuits before the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals filed four separate documents on Tuesday seeking to vacate two opinions related to constitutionality issues and get rehearings in both cases.

“In one lawsuit initiated by the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association and 12 of its affiliates against personnel from the HISA Authority and the FTC, the Fifth Circuit ruled on Nov. 18 that HISA was unconstitutional because it ‘delegates unsupervised government power to a private entity,’ and thus ‘violates the private non-delegation doctrine.’ In this case, the defendants fired back with a pair of “emergency” motions and petitions Jan. 3.

“Those filings essentially said that Congress and the President have done their parts to clear up any lingering constitutional ambiguity, and now the Fifth Circuit is obliged to do its duty to ‘say what the law is’ with regard to HISA.”

To read the complete Thoroughbred Daily News story, click here.