Federal attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association in an attempt to put the brakes on the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), reports the Thoroughbred Daily News, arguing that the HBPA’s “complaint questions the validity of a law that currently subjects them to no obligation or penalty.”
The NHBPA and 12 of its state chapters filed suit in March in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, seeking to have HISA and a number of its elements declared unconstitutional. The crux of the suit is that plaintiffs believe HISA delegates legislative authority to a private organization and private individuals in violation of the U.S. Constitution
In the Apr. 30 motion to dismiss, federal attorneys argue: “Plaintiffs jumped the gun bringing this constitutional challenge.”
The filing continued: “Neither the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) nor the [HISA] Authority have even proposed rules that they could endeavor to enact. There has been no proposal for rules regarding permissible and impermissible drugs; no proposal for rules regarding racetrack safety; and no proposals for rules regarding enforcement procedures or penalties…There has not even been a rule crafted to govern how the Authority is to ‘propose’ any rules to the FTC–which is all fitting, given that HISA is only four months old.”
Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.
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