The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority on Friday asked the United States Supreme Court to grant petitions arising from a case out of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and hold a Sixth Circuit petition. The Authority also told the nation's highest court that it should focus on one constitutional question involving the enforcement of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Integrity Act (HISA).Even though the Authority's response was filed in a suit in which the states of Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana are challenging a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals case that rejected constitutional challenges to HISA, the Authority argued that a different case, out of the Fifth Circuit, is actually the better option for the Supreme Court to settle constitutional questions that have persisted in the federal court system for over five years.Three separate appeals courts-the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Circuits-have all previously agreed that HISA's rulemaking structure is constitutional. But the Fifth Circuit has twice opined that HISA's enforcement provisions are unconstitutional.“[T]he Court now has before it two certiorari petitions from the Fifth Circuit case presenting the same question regarding the facial constitutionality of HISA's enforcement provisions,” the Authority's Aug. 28 filing stated.“Although the Authority welcomes consideration of that question presented through either case, the petitions filed by the Authority and the Solicitor General in [a case brought by the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (NHBPA) and 12 affiliates] present the best vehicle for resolving it.“Granting those petitions would allow for direct review of the reasoning of the only court of appeals that has held the Act facially unconstitutional,” the Authority wrote.“Moreover, in that later-in-time decision, the Fifth Circuit engaged with the Sixth Circuit's reasoning on a full record following trial.“The Court should grant the petitions, [then] hold the petition in [the Sixth Circuit] case pending resolution of the merits in those cases.“If the Court does grant certiorari in this case, it should limit its review to the only issue on which the courts of appeals are divided: whether HISA's enforcement provisions are facially unconstitutional under the private-nondelegation doctrine,” the Authority's filing stated.By early 2025, the three cases out of the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Circuits had all reached the Supreme Court.Then, on June 30, 2025, the Supreme Court issued nearly identical dispositions for all three lawsuits involving the constitutionality of HISA, telling each respective appeals court that it wanted them to re-examine their rulings in light of a relevant decision the Supreme Court had just issued three days earlier.The June 27, 2025, decision rejected arguments that a funding mechanism for subsidized telecommunications services for low-income customers, rural hospitals, schools and libraries violated the non-delegation doctrine. The Supreme Court also rejected a claim that the FCC improperly delegated authority to a private entity to administer that program.Although the Sixth and Fifth Circuits have both issued new opinions that reaffirmed their earlier conclusions, the Eighth Circuit has yet to issue its decision, now 14 months after the Supreme Court's remand.The Authority's filing told the Supreme Court it need not wait for the Eighth Circuit to act.“There is no reason to await further percolation before reviewing whether HISA's enforcement provisions facially violate the private-nondelegation doctrine. The clean split between the Fifth and Sixth Circuits on that issue (and only that issue) demonstrates the 'differing conclusions on the constitutional question' squarely framing the Eighth Circuit's (and any other court's) binary choice in these parallel facial challenges. No obstacle prevents the [Supreme] Court from resolving that straightforward and clearly established conflict,” the Authority wrote.Earlier this month, when the Authority and the Federal Trade Commission filed separate petitions for the Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit case, Eric Hamelback, the NHBPA's chief executive officer, told TDN that his organization also wanted the Supreme Court to take up the question of HISA's constitutionality.“We welcome Supreme Court review because this case is ultimately about something much bigger than HISA,” Hamelback said Aug. 19. “It is about the constitutional limits on government power and whether Congress can give a private organization the authority to investigate, prosecute, adjudicate and impose penalties on American horsemen without meaningful federal supervision.”The post Authority Urges Supreme Court to Focus on Fifth Circuit HISA Enforcement Question appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.