Cohen: USTA needs to level with its members

As a frequent critic of the USTA, I had hoped the association would at least level with its members when the U.S. Supreme Court took action this week in the three pending lawsuits that have arisen over the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Act (HISA). So, I was profoundly disappointed when the USTA’s press release on Mondaycame nowhere close to accurately describing what the Supreme Court did. Because so many HRU readers get so much of their harness news from the USTA’s website, I think it’s really important to set the record straight.

The Supreme Court sent all three pending lawsuits, including the one in which the USTA is a litigant, back to the lower federal appeals court for reconsideration in light of a ruling the justices in Washington, D.C. made last Friday. That means that the justices rejected the USTA’s request to hear a HISA challenge now and to rule against federal racing regulators now. It means two more years or so of litigation before the Supreme Court is ready to reach a decision on the merits of a law which, I will remind folks, does not apply to harness racing. It means that HISA will remain in effect in most U.S. thoroughbred jurisdictions for at least another two years (and probably more). 

There was no grand USTA victory. There was no grand HISA defeat. The justices punted and it means more delay. That’s the truth. So is the fact that the ruling the Supreme Court issued last Friday, in a similar case, went in favor of the federal government by a vote of 6-3. I know that many of us disagree about HISA and about the decision by USTA executives to spend USTA funds litigating against it. But it does no one in the standardbred industry any good to walk around thinking that the Supreme Court did something the Supreme Court didn’t actually do in the HISA cases. 

The USTA’s press-release propaganda, so consistent when it comes to HISA, is a disservice and insult to its members, who deserve (at the least) to be told both the good news and the bad news about the expensive litigation their leaders have dragged them into. 

Andy Cohen, USTA member from Colorado