Columbus, OH — The USTA Executive Committee on Monday (June 5) approved the expenditure of $125,000 in the current year’s budget for legal fees to be incurred as the Association continues its constitutional challenge of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA).

This money will be used to prepare a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court. The petition will be due on Aug. 16, 2023, unless the parties request and are granted a 30-day filing extension, in which case the deadline will be Sept. 15, 2023. The Association is represented by the law firm of Gibson Dunn.

Should the Supreme Court elect to hear the case, an additional payment from the USTA of $375,000 would be due, pending approval by the Executive Committee. This expenditure would be drawn from the 2024 budget. In the event that the Court decided not to take the case, there would be no additional charge.

The USTA’s action initially was filed in 2021 by several organizations and entities, including the states of Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana; Hanover Shoe Farms; the Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association, and the tribal-owned Oklahoma racetracks Remington Park, Fair Meadows and Will Rogers Downs.

The lawsuit’s first claim is that HISA is unconstitutional because it grants governmental power to a private entity, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. The second claim is that the 10th Amendment of the Constitution forbids Congress to set up federal regulatory programs and try to make the states pay for them.

The case most recently was heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio, which on May 3 declined to grant a full-court rehearing to a three-judge panel’s previous ruling that upheld HISA’s constitutionality.

In total, there are five active cases in the federal courts alleging that HISA is unconstitutional.