Foundation Going to Federal Court

The West Virginia Family Foundation had made a plea to the state courts to listen to their case, as they felt that the new bill that allowed the counties to legalize slot machines if they were voted in – was unconstitutional. The court refused to hear their case, so now they are headed to federal court instead.

They are expected to file within the next four weeks to challenge the table game act, and they are going to the U.S. District Court in Charleston for their next step. They are challenging that not all voters were allowed to vote on the games, yet all of the voters will be impacted by the legalization of the games.

Their attorney says that they are also going after the “intellectual property rights” portion of the bill, as the state is claiming that they will actually possess the games. They say that since the state cannot produce a patent or trademark for the games, they do not own the intellectual property.

The foundation maintains that when the people of West Virginia legalized scratch off lotteries, this was not what they had imagined for their state. The lawyer says that they are confident that federal court will consider the “legal aspects of the law and not the political aspect” which is what they think happened at the state level.



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