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26  MURPHY v. NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSN. 

Opinion of the Court 

[Congress] would not have enacted those provisions which
are within its power, independently of [those] which [are] 
not.”  Alaska  Airlines,  Inc.  v.  Brock, 480  U. S.  678,  684 
(1987)  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted).  In  conducting
that inquiry, we ask whether the law remains “fully opera­
tive” without the invalid provisions, Free Enterprise Fund 
v.  Public  Company  Accounting  Oversight  Bd.,  561  U. S. 
477,  509  (2010)  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted),  but
“we cannot rewrite a statute and give it an effect altogether
different  from  that  sought  by  the  measure  viewed  as  a
whole,” Railroad Retirement Bd. v. Alton R. Co., 295 U. S. 
330, 362 (1935).  We will consider each of the provisions at 
issue separately. 

1 

Under  28  U. S. C.  §3702(1),  States  are  prohibited  from 

“operat[ing],”  “sponsor[ing],”  or  “promot[ing]”  sports  gam­
bling schemes.  If the provisions prohibiting state authori­
zation  and  licensing  are  stricken  but  the  prohibition  on 
state  “operat[ion]”  is  left  standing,  the  result  would  be  a 
scheme sharply different from what Congress contemplated
when  PASPA  was  enacted.    At  that  time,  Congress
knew that New Jersey was considering the legalization of 
sports  gambling  in  the  privately  owned  Atlantic  City 
casinos  and  that  other  States  were  thinking  about  the
institution of state-run sports lotteries.  PASPA addressed 
both of these potential developments.  It gave New Jersey
one  year  to  legalize  sports  gambling  in  Atlantic  City  but
otherwise banned the authorization of sports gambling in
casinos, and it likewise prohibited the spread of state-run 
lotteries.  If Congress had known that States would be free 
to  authorize  sports  gambling  in  privately  owned  casinos,
would it have nevertheless wanted to prevent States from
running sports lotteries?

That  seems  most  unlikely.  State-run  lotteries,  which 
sold tickets costing only a few dollars, were thought more