On July 7th, Day 2A of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event will kick off inside the Amazon Room from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Convening in the Amazon Room that day will be the survivors of Day 1A and Day 1B of the $10,000 buy-in feature tournament. On the same day, the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) will send its lawyers to the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals to give oral arguments in a case designed to declare the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) unconstitutional. This week, iMEGA learned that oral arguments would take place and the names of the three judges who will hear them.iMEGA Executive Director Joe Brennan commented in a press release distributed by the trade organization on Monday, “This law will finally have to stand on its own two feet in court, free from politics and all other outside influences. We feel very confident that when the judges take a look at the law, they will see just how defective it is, and they will overturn it.” The Third Circuit will hear oral arguments on July 7th at 10:00am in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. iMEGA will be represented by Eric Bernstein, who handled the organization’s case at the District Court level, and Stephen Saltzburg, a former Deputy Attorney General of the United States. Attorneys Nicholas Bagley and Jacqueline Coleman will represent the U.S. Department of Justice.
Judge Dolores Korman Sloviter is one of three judges who will hear the case. According to Federal Judicial Center’s website, Sloviter is a Philadelphia native who was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. She has tenure as Chief Judge, holding the position from 1991 to 1998. She was originally a law clerk for the City of Brotherly Love before moving onto private practice in 1956. She served on the faculty of Temple University until 1979, when she left to join the Third Circuit.
The second judge who will hear iMEGA argue why the UIGEA is unconstitutional in court is Thomas L. Ambro. He was born in 1949 in Cambridge, Ohio, according to the Federal Judicial Center, and nominated to the Third Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1999 after Walter K. Stapleton vacated his seat. Congress confirmed him one year later. Ambro was in private practice for 25 years before becoming a member of the Third Circuit.
The final judge of the panel is Kent A. Jordan, an adjunct law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Widener University School of Law, and Vanderbilt University. According to the University of Pennsylvania’s website, Jordan was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2000 after serving four years as a District Court judge in Delaware. Jordan took the place of Jane R. Roth in 2006 and hails from West Point, New York.
The action in the Third Circuit was originally scheduled for July 6th, but has since been pushed back a day. The Third Circuit’s clerk notified iMEGA in April that its case would be heard in July, although it was unclear at the time whether oral arguments would be conducted. In March, iMEGA submitted a motion to supplement the record with information on Visa and MasterCard over-blocking legal online lottery transactions in North Dakota and New Hampshire. Online lotteries, wagering on horse racing, and fantasy sports received an exemption from the UIGEA. In addition, iMEGA requested to add the final regulations of the UIGEA to the record. The case is listed as being heard as “on the merits” by the Third Circuit.
According to iMEGA, over-blocking is an example of why the UIGEA is ineffective at best and should be “void for vagueness.” Several attempts by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) to clarify the 2006 law during the last Congress were unsuccessful. HR 6870, the second version of the Payments System Protection Act, was approved by a 30-19 vote in the House Financial Services Committee in September, but fell by the wayside due to the then-emerging worldwide financial crisis. The first installment, which Frank co-sponsored with Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), failed to be approved by the Committee.
Stay tuned to PocketFives.com for the latest from the iMEGA UIGEA challenge. Check out the Poker Legislation forum for the latest news notes from the industry.
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