Fifth Circuit extends stay of injunction against HISA

The Fifth Circuit of Appeals has issued a stay of an injunction that had prevented the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority from enforcing most of its rules in Louisiana and West Virginia, pending HISA’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling.

In a ruling issued on Monday afternoon, the Fifth Circuit extended a stay that it granted late last week in response to an injunction ordered by a lower federal court in Louisiana. The Fifth Circuit ordered that the stay be enforced until the case could be deliberated by the court on an “expedited basis.”

Two weeks ago, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued an injunction preventing HISA from enforcing its rules in Louisiana and West Virginia. The injunction as sought by the two states, along with The Jockeys’ Guild, which joined the suit as a plaintiff.

HISA appealed that injunction to the Fifth Circuit, which had granted a temporary stay on Thursday while further deliberating on the case.

The plaintiffs in the initial suit had argued that HISA had violated provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, among a number of other claims.

The ruling by the Fifth Circuit on Monday denied a stay, in part, on several HISA rules, including the authority’s rules to conduct investigations and assessments on member jurisdictions. Notably, the stay did not exempt several rules related to the use of the whip during the race, meaning those HISA rules stay in effect. The Jockeys’ Guild joined the suit in large part because of its objections to HISA’s whip-use rules.

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