This is The Mouthpiece, a guest contribution by Martin Owens. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

Part one: Why Legislators Need Horse Sense

The big problem with widely publicized Supreme Court decisions is that people insist on reading all sorts of things into the decision. Things that would be nice to have, but simply aren’t there.

The first thing to remember about the Supreme Court decision in Murphy v NCAA ,is that it did not, repeat NOT actually legalize sports betting throughout the United States, as some seem to be claiming. What the decision did is to remove a Federal obstacle to states legalizing sports betting, if they so wish. That bears repeating: if they so wish. No state has to license sports betting. State governments maintain their plenary power over gambling. English translation – state governments can do anything they like with, to, or about gambling, so long as they don’t actually violate established constitutional protections in doing so.