THE U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District has affirmed the District Court for the NMI’s ruling that the federal ban on cockfighting applies to the Commonwealth and does not intrude on its right to self-governance.
Ninth Circuit Judges Richard A. Paez, Milan D. Smith Jr., and Lucy H. Koh affirmed the dismissal of former Rep. Andrew Salas’s lawsuit asking the federal court to declare that Section 12616 of the Agriculture Improvement Act or AIA and 7 U.S.C. § 2156 are not applicable to or effective in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Salas also asked the court to issue an injunction prohibiting the U.S. government and its agents from enforcing Section 12616 of the AIA, or 7 U.S.C. § 2156, or any other provisions of statutory or regulatory law that depend on its validity, in the Northern Marianas.
Salas, through attorney Joseph Horey, said the Covenant establishing a political union between the U.S. and the NMI effectively exempts the Commonwealth from federal prohibitions on cockfighting.
According to the Ninth Circuit ruling, “Because cockfighting was lawful in both Guam and the CNMI under each jurisdiction’s own laws, cockfighting was not federally prohibited there until a 2018 Amendment to the AWA, which prohibited cockfighting in every United States jurisdiction.”
Judge Koh said: “We conclude that 7 U.S.C. § 2156 and its 2018 Amendment apply to the CNMI. Accordingly, we affirm.”
For his part, Judge Paez said the “plaintiff failed to demonstrate that 7 U.S.C. § 2156 and its 2018 Amendment impermissibly intrude upon the internal affairs of the CNMI.”
Horey, in an email to Variety on Monday, said his client’s next step will be to petition the Ninth Circuit for a rehearing en banc or by the full court.
Asked about amending federal law to allow cockfighting in the CNMI, Horey said, “An amendment excluding the CNMI from the prohibition would certainly be effective, but I doubt it would pass Congress. The appropriate committee to get the ball rolling would be the Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs, if they are willing to try.”
He added, “The court’s ruling doesn’t change anything for anyone holding cockfights now. They were in danger of getting busted before, and they are still in danger now. We were hoping to change that, but we have been unsuccessful so far.”
According to the U.S. government, it has imposed prohibitions on animal fighting in the states and the territories since 1976. The complaint’s legal theories about the power of Congress to prohibit cockfighting in the CNMI are meritless, it added.
In Nov. 2022, Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona granted the request of the U.S. Department of Justice and dismissed with prejudice Salas’s lawsuit.
In a 15-page decision and order, Judge Manglona said, “Plaintiff’s proffer of providing more facts about how deeply entrenched cockfighting is in the CNMI would not cure the deficiency. Such amendment would be futile because the federal interests in regulating interstate commerce, preventing the spread of avian flu, and ensuring the humane treatment of animals outweigh the degree of intrusion into the internal affairs of the CNMI as it relates to the tradition of cockfighting.”
