The anti-online Restoration of America’s Wire Act had its hearing on Wednesday with the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations.

The hearing began late and ended early as representatives had to press pause in order to return to the House floor for votes on other legislation.

The event really got going after Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VI) – a chief architect of the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) – attempted some legislative jujitsu by declaring that RAWA wasn’t an unwarranted trampling of states’ rights but a pro-states rights bill.

Goodlatte (pictured right) claimed RAWA supporters wanted to “protect the rights of states to prevent unwanted internet gambling from creeping across their borders and into their states.” This heretofore little discussed concept of online gambling ‘”bleeding over” state lines was to come up multiple times during Wednesday’s hearing.