The State of New Jersey’s epic quest to legalize sports betting is slowly, very slowly winding its way through the Federal Court system.
Late last month, New Jersey state attorneys filed a challenge with the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn three lower courts’ decisions against overturning the sports betting ban.
It is, by nearly all accounts the Garden State’s last, best, shot breaking the betting blockade.
The appeal is also, not surprisingly, running into more delays as attorneys representing the big four professional sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA) and the NCAA, have filed for an extension to file their own response. They now have until April 21 to post up their filings in the case.
Extending the deadline for the league attorneys also ups the odds that the case will not be heard during the next session of the nation’s highest courts.
According to Meadlowlands Matters, a Jersey blog that’s provided great coverage of the case, that could push a final decision on whether the court will hear the case to June at the earliest and maybe as late as September.
These delays would give New Jersey state lawyers and clerks the whole summer to improve their case.
Of course all of the preparation in the world won’t mean a thing unless the Supreme Court actually agrees to hear it in the first place. Given the fact that they only hear around 100 of the more than 10,000 cases brought to their attention that’s hardly a guarantee.
Glass-half-full-types say the cores states’ rights issues involved in the case make it a pretty safe bet that the Supremes will hear it.
None of the delays surrounding this case are any surprise to anyone who has been following it since the beginning. It’s also been assumed that the case would wind up in front of the highest court in the land where a final decision would be made.