Supreme Court Upholds Enforcement of Anti-Doping Law in Horse Racing

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday to uphold an independent authority tasked with enforcing a federal anti-doping law in the horse racing industry, a decision that comes amid a broader debate over the separation of powers in U.S. governance. This ruling maintains the enforcement mechanisms of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA), a law enacted in 2020 following a series of high-profile thoroughbred fatalities and corruption scandals.

The court’s brief order allows the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA), a private enforcement entity overseen by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to continue its operations. Proponents of the law highlighted that, in 2019 alone, 441 thoroughbreds died due to race-related injuries, raising safety concerns from animal rights advocates and within the industry itself.

While a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had previously upheld much of the law, it struck down HISA’s enforcement powers, arguing that the law allowed the private entity to issue subpoenas, conduct searches, and impose fines without FTC approval—actions deemed unconstitutional by the appeals court.

The Supreme Court’s decision, while limited to the horse racing sector, sets the stage for potentially far-reaching implications regarding the extent to which federal agencies can delegate authority to private organizations. Several appeals concerning this issue are already pending before the court, including a significant case from the Biden administration related to the Universal Service Fund, which raises questions about whether the Federal Communications Commission can delegate fee collection to a private entity.

Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst and Georgetown Law professor, indicated that the court’s intervention in the horse racing case signals a likely consideration of these broader administrative law issues in the near future. “The intervention in the relatively smaller horseracing case seems a pretty clear signal that the court is going to take up some or all of the bigger cases, too—probably sooner rather than later,” Vladeck noted.

Historically, the horse racing industry has been marred by doping scandals, including a high-profile incident involving trainer Bob Baffert, whose horse Medina Spirit was disqualified from the 2021 Kentucky Derby after failing a drug test. Baffert attributed the presence of a prohibited substance to a topical ointment used for a skin infection and accepted responsibility for the findings.

In addition to Baffert’s case, more than two dozen individuals in the industry were indicted in 2020 for a scheme to administer performance-enhancing drugs to horses.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a member of the court’s liberal wing, dissented from the decision on technical grounds, arguing that the Supreme Court should not have intervened in the emergency case, given that similar questions are pending for consideration in the merits docket.

As the legal landscape surrounding federal delegation powers evolves, the Supreme Court’s forthcoming decisions could have significant implications for regulatory frameworks across various sectors.