DoJ Tries to Block New Jersey Governor From Sports Betting Suit
New Jersey state Senator Ray Lezniak's lawsuit to force the federal government to allow states the right to decide their own sports betting policies was given little chance to succeed, because the state was not acting as a complainant. Now that Governor Jon Corzine is joining the suit, the Department of Justice is starting to run scared enough to start reaching into its bag of deceptive legal maneuvers to prevent straightforward justice on the gambling issue.The DoJ is asking a US District Court to prevent Corzine from entering the gambling suit. Their claim states any representation of the state must occur through the state Attorney General's office, not the governor's.
"The constitutional claims that the Governor seeks to advance do not belong to him; they belong, instead, to the State of New Jersey, which has not properly sought to intervene or assert an interest in this case," says the US government's brief on the matter.
"The DoJ is trying to have everyone dismissed from this challenge," said Joe Brennan, Jr., chairman of iMEGA. Brennan, whose organization is also a party to the suit, asserted, "The DOJ cannot deny, though, that this law grants special status on this issue to only four states, and the other 46 states are deprived the opportunity to decide the issue for themselves."
The case represents a particularly sticky wicket for the Executive Branch. While the DoJ is acting to deny Governor Corzine the right to represent his state as chief executive, President Obama is campaigning fiercely to see Corzine re-elected.
Lesniak's lawsuit contends that the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act is unconstitutional in its uneven treatment of states, giving four states the opportunity to host sports betting while discriminating against the rest, causing economic disadvantage to New Jersey.
