Will Trump nominee review office of legal counsel opinion on the Wire Act?

Michelle Minton of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has published another factual analytical assessment of the current situation regarding the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) 2011 opinion that the Wire Act of 1961 applies only to sports wagering.

Minton delves deeply into the original motivation for the Act, its subsequent interpretation, and the possible consequences for federal government if it tries to modify the OLC opinion.

She points out that should Trump nominee Steven Engel be approved as head of the OLC, he has already indicated to hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee that he sees his duty as “advising the executive branch on the requirements of the law in order to fulfil the President’s constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Engel was also adamant that, if appointed, he would not be swayed by “political pressure or convenience” in his job of defending the Constitution and the correct application of the law…in the light of the recent firing by the president of FBI chief Jim Comey, that is a commitment worth noting.

The OLC’s function is to advise the executive branch of government in order that its officials operate within the bounds of the Constitution, and a move against the OLC 2011 opinion on the Wire Act in further manoeuvres on the twice-failed Restoration of America’s Wire Act may be one of the challenges Engel faces if appointed.

In that event, his actions will be closely monitored by state lotteries, states that have legalised online gambling successfully and large companies that have made a commercial success of US regulated online gambling; hundreds of millions of dollars would be at stake, and litigation would be almost certain, Minton suggests.

The warning should also be heeded by newly appointed and already beleaguered Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who told his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year that he was “shocked” at the Office of Legal Counsel’s (OLC) 2011 clarification that the Wire Act applied only to sports betting, and that he would “revisit” the ruling when he was in office.

Whilst he likely has more pressing issues to deal with at present, Sessions surely is aware that individual US states jealously guard their sovereign rights (and their tax revenues) and will react to any federal move that threatens either.

Read the full article here: https://cei.org/blog/trump-doj-nominee-unlikely-bend-anti-gamblers-will