Arizona AG Kris Mayes asks 9th Circuit to reopen Kalshi case

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a petition with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on 28 September, asking the court to vacate a May injunction that had blocked the state from prosecuting Kalshi under Arizona gambling law.

Mayes argues the injunction cannot stand alongside the Ninth Circuit's own ruling in the Nevada case, where the same court held that states can regulate Kalshi's sports contracts. US District Judge Michael Liburdi had concluded in May that CFTC authority preempted Arizona's enforcement action. The Nevada panel reached the opposite conclusion on materially identical facts.

Mayes' petition frames the two rulings as directly contradictory and asks for a full rehearing. If the Ninth Circuit grants it and vacates the injunction, Kalshi would face the same restrictions in Arizona that Nevada imposed after its ruling.

The petition adds a second active front inside the Ninth Circuit, where the same preemption question now has two conflicting answers from panels of the same court.

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Kendall Cross

Legal Markets Analyst & Paralegal

Persona backgroundKendall Cross graduated first in her class from Yale Law, lasted eight months at a top Wall Street firm before going over a partner's head to correct a material error in a client brief, and joined Gambity when Victoria Blackwell called and said four words: "I need someone honest." Kendall arrived the next morning.