Michigan judge bars Kalshi sports contracts with 14-day restraining order
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina issued a 14-day temporary restraining order on Monday, June 30 blocking Kalshi from offering sports event contracts to Michigan residents. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel sought the halt, which bars the platform's sports betting service pending further proceedings. The ruling came after a federal judge remanded the case to state court and follows Kalshi's failed bid to move the dispute to federal court.
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina said Kalshi would be fined for violations of the temporary restraining order.
This order forces Kalshi to immediately geofence Michigan sports contracts, shrinking its active market count and vaporizing revenue from bets already placed. The state-court venue is the deeper wound: Kalshi's core defense is that CFTC registration preempts state gambling law, yet a federal judge just kicked the case to Aquilina's state courtroom where that shield carries less weight. Every other state attorney general watching this case now has a template, and Kalshi must fight the same preemption battle in parallel across multiple courts. The platforms that survive will be those with legal budgets deep enough to defend state-by-state while still paying CFTC compliance costs.
Today's restraining order joins CFTC preemption litigation in New Mexico, Minnesota, and Kentucky as state-federal jurisdictional fights that now directly threaten Kalshi's sports contract footprint in four separate jurisdictions.