Kentucky Hearing Postponed Again - Web Host Industry Review

[I Heart Gambling Online]

Further prolonging a definitive ruling, the Kentucky state Court of Appeals has issued a stay on a forfeiture hearing for 141 online domain names due to a petition led by Washington, DC-based Internet trade association Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA :: Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association).

The court has ruled for more time to make a potentially groundbreaking decision regarding dispute which began in September when Kentucky Governor Stephen Beshear and Secretary of Justice and Public Safety Michael J. Brown had sought the seizure of the domain names linked to Internet gambling. Originally scheduled to be resolved on November 17, the hearing was pushed back to December 3, and has now been delayed until December 12 when both side will present oral arguments before the Court of Appeals.

"Since the lower court elected to ignore Kentucky law, and instead reached back to a law the current one supplanted to find a rationale justifying these seizures, we have no choice but to go to the Court of Appeals." iMEGA chairman and CEO Joe Brennan Jr. said in a statement.

iMEGA's legal team, which has doggedly fought to protect the 141 domains, filed its response brief with the US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals last week, challenging the constitutionality of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. Specifically, that it misapplied Kentucky's "gambling devices" law in order to provide a rationale for allowing the seizures. It also argues that the state's violated the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, and that Secretary Brown lacked the authority to initiate the seizure in the first place.

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