Alito gives New Jersey until Aug. 4 to seek Supreme Court review of Kalshi ruling
Justice Samuel Alito gave New Jersey until Aug. 4 to file for Supreme Court review of Kalshi's Third Circuit win, the first formal SCOTUS filing in the sports prediction market preemption fight. The deadline could set up high court review of the appellate ruling that favored the CFTC-regulated platform. New Jersey is considering asking the court to rule on whether prediction market companies offer illegal, unregulated sports betting.
A Supreme Court grant of review would move the preemption question from scattered state courts to a single binding federal answer, freezing or wiping out Kalshi's wins in Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. The Aug. 4 deadline forces New Jersey's attorney general to decide now whether to gamble on certiorari rather than keep fighting Kalshi in district court.
Kalshi's legal team must simultaneously defend that Third Circuit victory against New Jersey's potential petition while parrying fresh injunctions and tax demands in other states. A drawn-out docket at One First Street gives state attorneys general more time to secure local bans before any final preemption ruling lands.
Alito's deadline joins the Kalshi sues Illinois over July 1 tax and licensing and Michigan's fresh injunction as the third state-level action this week testing whether CFTC registration shields prediction markets from state gambling law.