The law exempted Nevada\u2019s legalized sports gambling. It also grandfathered sports lotteries in three states. Finally, it gave New Jersey the option of reinstating sports gambling in Atlantic City — provided that it did so within a year from the passage of federal law. New Jersey didn\u2019t take advantage of the option within the time limit.<\/span><\/p>\n Whatever its original motives, Paspa today serves as guarantor of Nevada\u2019s pre-eminent position in the vast U.S. sports gambling industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n New Jersey\u2019s efforts to allow sports gambling included a 2011 statewide referendum that endorsed a change in the laws; Christie signed a bill decriminalizing such betting in 2012. The 2013 decision blocking that initial effort grew out of litigation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, as well as the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball to block \u00a0that law.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In response, New Jersey argued that Paspa violates the Constitution. They put most of their eggs in the wrong basket, emphasizing the claim that Congress lacked the authority to \u201ccommandeer\u201d state resources for federal objectives.<\/span><\/p>\n Roberts\u2019s argument was that such differential treatment of states required a strong justification, which existed when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 but no longer existed today. This claim was strongly criticized, and the eminent and acerbic Judge Richard Posner commented that he\u2019d never heard of the \u201cequal sovereignty\u201d doctrine because it didn\u2019t exist. But equal sovereignty is now the law of the land.<\/span><\/p>\n Paspa treats states differently from one another by enshrining Nevada\u2019s special gambling preserve — and hence violates the equal sovereignty of New Jersey voters by denying them the right to do what Nevada does. This isn\u2019t just a matter of constitutional doctrine. It also makes constitutional common sense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Many laws may have differential effects in the real world. A coal mining regulation will affect West Virginia more than it affects Hawaii. And the courts shouldn\u2019t be in the business of reviewing every federal law to see whether it helps some states over others.<\/span><\/p>\n But a law that explicitly gives some states rights that others lack goes too far. And it\u2019s worse when the public in one state wants to change its laws to compete with another state — and is denied that right by the federal law in question.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 Noah Feldman writes: \u00a0 The New Jersey public, not to mention Governor Chris Christie, wants to reinstate sports gambling in Atlantic City in the hopes of reversing the trajectory of a place that has totally cratered. The nominal justification for … Continue reading ![\"Equal](\"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bingo-gambler-copyright3.gif\")
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