Research Brief: U.S. Court of Appeals First Circuit Wire Act Ruling
While most of the attention in the United States was focused on the Inauguration on January 20, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit released its ruling on a case between the New Hampshire Lottery Commission and Neopollard, a lottery vendor, against the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) regarding the Interstate Wire Act of 1961. The suit was brought by New Hampshire in response to the memorandum issued by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (“OLC”) on November 2, 2018 (the “2018 Memo”), which stated that the Wire Act applied to all forms of gaming and not just sports betting. The 2018 Memo reversed a previous interpretation of the original Wire Act issued in 2011 (the “2011 Memo”).
The 49-page ruling confirmed the district court’s ruling that the Wire Act only applies to a “sporting event or contest.” In light of today’s other activities, which largely surrounded the onboarding of a new administration that will push to reinstitute many Obama Era policies, this further accentuates the problems with the 2018 Memo and the stance issued by the Department of Justice in 2018.
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