New Jersey Landmark Sports Betting Case Appeal to be Heard June 26

U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals judges Julio Fuentes of New Jersey and D. Nichael Fisher and Thomas Vanaskie of Pennsylvania will hear oral arguments in Philadelphia June 26 pertaining to a landmark New Jersey sports betting case.

Michael Chagares of New Jersey was listed among the judges for that particular week, John Brennan of the Bergen Record notes, but there was apparently a “reconstituted panel”.

Brennan analyzes each of the three presiding judges.

Vanaskie is a 2010 appointee of President Obama, whereas Chagares was appointed by George W. Bush in 2006. Fuentes was a 2000 Bill Clinton appointee, while Fisher was a GW Bush selection in 2003.

Fisher lost to Democrat Ed Rendell in the 2002 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election.

Fuentes, 66, is a native of Puerto Rico who grew up in the Toms River, N.J. area (coincidentally, not so far from Monmouth Park, where interest in adding sports betting at that horse track led the state’s thoroughbred horsemen to intervene in this case).

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com