South Carolina Video Poker Suit May Continue

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South Carolina Video Poker Suit May Continue

Special Report - August 31, 2007
A lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s 1999 ban on video poker will continue after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit determined on August 29 that the federal courts may hear the case. The suit, filed by Lucky Strike LLC, seeks to enjoin enforcement of the video poker ban enacted by the South Carolina Legislature that prohibits the presence and operation of gambling devices and allows law enforcement officers to seize illegal machines. The lawsuit argues that the ban violates the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Court Judge David C. Norton originally dismissed the challenges on the basis that the issue did not belong in federal court. The Fourth Circuit, however, reversed that decision in a 2 to 1 ruling, stating that the federal courts can have a say in the case. Fourth Circuit Judge Diana Motz said that because the plaintiff’s claims “neither involve difficult questions of state law nor threaten a state interest in uniform regulation,” they do not fall under the Burford doctrine that would exclude them from federal court consideration. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, also on the three-judge panel, was the only judge to dissent, stating that the district court “was within its authority to conclude that plaintiffs’ constitutional challenge would be most properly heard in state court.”

The case now goes back to the district court for a ruling in compliance with the Fourth Circuit’s determination.