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Your comment is completely untethered from any understanding of the Constitution and American federalist system. Authority and sovereignty in the U.S. flows up
by mobilefriendly 8y ago
Your comment is completely untethered from any understanding of the Constitution and American federalist system. Authority and sovereignty in the U.S. flows upward from the people to the states and then to the federal government. The federal government likely cannot make it illegal to place a sports bet, which is why Congress was trying to commandeer the state governments to do it. Federal sovereignty is explicitly limited (particularly through the Bill of Rights) and not nearly as arbitrary and sweeping as you think it is. Even your sanctions example is wrong, the U.S. could not just make it illegal for Americans to gamble in Canada. Such a narrow provision would be unconstitutional, the federal government would have to demonstrate a national foreign policy reason (a legitimate function of the federal government) for it to pass such a law and have it survive court challenge.
- dragonwriter 8y ago> The federal government likely cannot make it illegal to place a sports bet There is a much stronger interstate commerce clause claim for a very broad prohibition here (say, effecting any betting either on any competition involving an interstate or international sports league, or where the bet crosses state or national borders, or using regulated wire or broadcast communication channels) than for many things that have survived challenge the whole way through the Supreme Court, so while I recognize that many people have narrow personal interpretations of the Commerce Clause power, I don't think that is actually a real practical barrier here.
- mobilefriendly 8y agoI agree but that's something fairly short of the total federal prohibition discussed on this thread. (The other federal angle, used against otherwise legal offshore betting, is banning bank processing). I also suspect this court is looking to limit the current near-limitless boundaries of the Commerce Clause.
- tathougies 8y ago> The federal government likely cannot make it illegal to place a sports bet That is my personal interpretation of the constitution. But if you read the supreme court decision, the majority opinion states that they can.