Online Gambling News: UIGEA Hearing Set for September 4A Federal Judge in the state of New Jersey has assigned a hearing date for its lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that seeks to have an new online gambling law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) overturned. Gambling911.com has learned that the hearing date is set for September 4. Judge Mary L. Cooper of the US District Court in Trenton, NJ will hear the matter.
The group, the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association (iMEGA), has a good shot, according to Cassimir Medford who has been covering the online gambling legal climate for Red Herring
iMEGA's goal is to get the court to declare the UIGEA unconstitutional and unenforceable, according to Medford. That’s because the group says the act violates the First Amendment’s rights to freedom of speech and commercial association as well as the Tenth Amendment’s protections of states’ rights to regulate online gambling.
“We think the law infringes on the First Amendment and Tenth Amendment rights of our members,” Edward Leyden, iMEGA’s president, told Red Herring last month. “And we also believe the government has exceeded its authority in its WTO dispute with Antigua and that too has harmed our clients.”
Joe Brennan, Jr., iMEGA founder and a former executive of AOL, spoke briefly with Gambling911.com Wednesday evening.
"The UIGEA can still be enforced prior to the September 4 date," he said. "But we feel confident that the judge will prevent that from happening."
Brennan went on to explain how enforcement of the UIGEA would only serve to make the judge's job more cumbersome.
"She (the judge) will then have to wade through all the rules and regulations in addition to reviewing our complaint."
The honorable Judge Cooper will review the briefs submitted by iMEGA and the defendants (US DoJ, FTC and Federal Reserve) to determine if she will grant iMEGA's request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the enforcement of UIGEA.
Judge Cooper can decide whether she will rule on the TRO request based on the submitted briefs, or can order a separate hearing to hear oral arguments and testimony before making a ruling.
iMEGA waited less than a day after the submission of their brief in support of their request for an injunction preventing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) from taking effect for a Federal Circuit Court judge to order a hearing in the matter.
"We're very happy that the Court has set a date for hearing our case. We're confident that once the Act is given an impartial examination, the Court will see the problems it creates and the kind of slippery-slope precedent we'll be left with if the law stands.
“We’ve laid out our argument on the merits of granting a TRO for the enforcement of UIGEA for the Court,” Brennan said Tuesday. “From iMEGA’s standpoint, we did not want the defendants (US Dept. of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve) to use the allowed 60 days in their summonses in order to stall and give themselves more time to promulgate the regulations for UIGEA.”
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com
Originally published July 11, 2007 8:48 pm ET Updated 11:42 pm ET
