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Page Number: 5

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash­
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

Nos. 16–476 and 16–477 
_________________ 

16–476 

PHILIP D. MURPHY, GOVERNOR OF NEW 
JERSEY, ET AL., PETITIONERS 
v. 
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC 
ASSOCIATION, ET AL. 

16–477 

NEW JERSEY THOROUGHBRED HORSEMEN’S 
ASSOCIATION, INC., PETITIONER 
v. 
NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC 
ASSOCIATION, ET AL. 

ON WRITS OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT 

[May 14, 2018] 

JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. 
The  State  of  New  Jersey  wants  to  legalize  sports  gam­
bling at casinos and horseracing tracks, but a federal law, 
the  Professional  and  Amateur  Sports  Protection  Act,
generally  makes  it  unlawful  for  a  State  to  “authorize”
sports gambling schemes.  28 U. S. C. §3702(1).  We must 
decide  whether  this  provision  is  compatible  with  the  sys­
tem of “dual sovereignty” embodied in the Constitution. 

I 
A 
Americans have never been of one mind about gambling,