Is Sheldon Adelson’s online gambling ban unconstitutional, or is it constitutionally required?
Today a House subcommittee held a hearing on the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, which would ban online gambling throughout the country, even in states that choose to allow it. The witnesses included Andrew Moylan, executive director of the R Street Institute, who explained why that policy would violate the federalist principles reflected in the 10th Amendment.
The bill, introduced last month by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), prohibits “any bet or wager” communicated by “any transmission over the Internet carried interstate or in foreign commerce, incidentally or otherwise.” Those last three words “carry a tremendous amount of weight,” Moylan noted, because they make the ban applicable to wholly intrastate betting that happens to be routed through equipment located in another state. “To treat all use of the Internet, no matter its nature, no matter the individuals or entities it might connect, as ‘per se interstate’ and thus subject to Commerce Clause regulation,” he argued, “would constitute an enormous shove down the slippery slope toward federal power without meaningful limits.” Ron Paul agreed.
