Department of the Interior fires back as Florida sports betting case rumbles on
US federal agency files motion opposing stay of ruling implementation pending petition to US Supreme Court in watershed case
The US Department of the Interior (DOI) has formally voiced its opposition to a motion to stay the implementation of a June ruling in the long running dispute over Florida sports betting.
Attorneys for Florida-based parimutuel West Flagler and Associates filed a motion to stay the implementation pending the submission of a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court for a formal review of the case on September 15.
The motion came after the DC Circuit Court of Appeals denied West Flagler’s en banc petition for a formal rehearing of the legal case with the full DC Circuit Court bench, rather than just the three justices who had initially ruled on the case in June.
West Flagler’s case centers on the belief that the DOI and the US Secretary of State for the Interior Deborah Haaland approved what was effectively an illegal gaming compact in ratifying a 30-year tribal compact signed by the Seminole Tribe and the state of Florida in May 2021 authorizing the tribe to offer online gaming.
Responding to this latest attempt by West Flagler to resurrect the case, US Department of Justice attorney Rachel Heron, acting on behalf of the DOI, summarized the federal agency’s opposition to the motion.
“A stay is not warranted, because any such petition could present no substantial question for Supreme Court review,” Heron wrote in the nine-page DOI response.
“This court reached a narrow, case-specific holding about the meaning of language in one compact under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).
“Its decision makes explicitly clear that the compact does not purport to—and as a matter of law, could not—authorize the gaming activities outside Indian land that West Flagler believes are illegal, and that West Flagler’s dispute is instead with the Florida law that does authorize those activities.
“West Flagler’s assertion that this court’s opinion nevertheless raises questions of exceptional importance rests on the same misreading of the opinion advanced in its unsuccessful petition for rehearing en banc. The motion should be denied,” Heron explained.
To stay any implementation of the earlier legal decision and kick the case up to the US Supreme Court, the West Flagler motion must satisfy three criteria.
These include a reasonable probability that the Supreme Court will grant the certiorari, a fair prospect that the Supreme Court will reverse the decision and lastly, that denying a stay will result in “irreparable harm” to the plaintiff.
In its motion to stay, West Flagler confirmed it would pursue the writ, which under US law is subject to a 90-day submission window from September 11 to December 11.
However, in the DOI motion, Heron argues that West Flagler has not met any of these criteria.
Further, the DOI asserts that while US Secretary of State for the Interior Haaland could not authorize gaming on tribal lands via a compact, as was ruled on by the court in the earlier case, the court did not prohibit the state and tribe from negotiating an agreement to offer online gaming under IGRA.
“West Flagler’s failure to present a meritorious certiorari issue requires that the motion for stay be dismissed,” DOI attorney Heron wrote.
“To the extent this court proceeds to consider West Flagler’s equitable contentions, they are also fatally undermined by West Flagler’s refusal to grapple with the limited nature of the court’s holding.
“Whatever the merits of West Flagler’s allegations that Florida’s regime for governing gaming outside Indian land will cause irreparable financial injury or thwart the will of Florida voters, this suit against the Secretaryis not the appropriate forum to air them.
“West Flagler remains free to challenge that Florida law in an appropriate forum,” Heron concluded.
Under appeals court procedures, West Flagler now has seven days to submit a written response to the DOI motion back to the federal agency in the case.
The continuance of the case now pushes the potential relaunch of the Hard Rock Digital Sportsbook in the Sunshine State even further into 2024, with the Seminole Tribe-powered sportsbook having ceased operation in Florida in November 2021.