---
type: source
title: "38 State AGs File Bipartisan Amicus Opposing CFTC Prediction Market Preemption in Massachusetts SJC"
author: "Multi-State Attorney General Coalition"
url: https://www.mass.gov/cases/commonwealth-v-kalshiex-llc
date: 2026-04-24
domain: internet-finance
secondary_domains: []
format: legal-filing
status: processed
processed_by: rio
processed_date: 2026-04-27
priority: high
tags: [prediction-markets, regulation, cftc, preemption, federalism, massachusetts-sjc, attorney-general, dodd-frank]
intake_tier: research-task
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

A bipartisan coalition of 38 state attorneys general filed an amicus brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. KalshiEx LLC on April 24, 2026, backing Massachusetts against Kalshi.

**Signatory states:** 38 of 51 AG offices, spanning the full political spectrum. Deep-red states included: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah. The coalition is bipartisan in the strongest sense — not a partisan opposition but a federalism-based coalition.

**Core argument:** The CFTC cannot claim exclusive preemption authority based on Dodd-Frank, which targeted 2008 financial crisis instruments, not sports gambling. The 38 AGs argue that CFTC's exclusive jurisdiction claim lacks textual basis: "the provision of law [the CEA's exclusive jurisdiction clause] does not even mention gambling at all."

**Scale context:** Kalshi users wagered >$1B/month in 2025, with approximately 90% on sports contracts. The 38 AGs are targeting the dominant use case, not a marginal one.

**Same-day CFTC counter-brief:** CFTC filed its own amicus in the same Massachusetts SJC case on April 24, asserting federal preemption. Two adversarial amicus briefs filed in one state supreme court case on one day — an unusual escalation of the federal-state contest into a state appellate forum.

**Scope:** The 38 AGs' brief exclusively addresses CFTC-registered DCMs. MetaDAO is not addressed anywhere.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This is the largest state coalition yet — 38 of 51 AG offices — and it spans partisan lines. The prior pattern was Democratic AGs leading resistance; this filing breaks that pattern with deep-red states joining. The Dodd-Frank federalism argument is the strongest legal theory for state resistance because it attacks the textual basis of CFTC preemption rather than arguing CFTC is wrong on policy. If this argument prevails, DCM-registered platforms lose their federal preemption shield regardless of who is in the White House.

**What surprised me:** Oklahoma joining is particularly notable — Oklahoma has one of the largest tribal gaming sectors in the US (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee nations). The state that benefits most from tribal gaming exclusivity arguing against federal prediction market preemption signals that tribal interests are driving what looks like a partisan coalition but is actually a gaming industry coalition.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any mention of on-chain protocols, futarchy governance markets, or MetaDAO. Zero references to decentralized mechanisms. The 38 AGs are fighting over DCM-registered platforms exclusively. This is consistent with 28+ sessions of finding no enforcement actions targeting on-chain governance.

**KB connections:**
- [[futarchy-based fundraising creates regulatory separation because there are no beneficial owners and investment decisions emerge from market forces not centralized control]] — if 38-AG theory prevails, the two-tier architecture crystallizes further in MetaDAO's favor
- CFTC-licensed DCM preemption protects centralized prediction markets but not decentralized governance markets — this filing is the most significant challenge to that preemption since the 3rd Circuit win
- Living Capital vehicles likely fail the Howey test for securities classification — the Dodd-Frank federalism argument does not affect the Howey analysis; these are separate regulatory vectors

**Extraction hints:**
- Primary claim: "38-state bipartisan AG coalition opposing CFTC prediction market preemption signals that the state-federal conflict is a states' rights issue, not a partisan issue — making SCOTUS resolution less predictable even for a court that historically favors federal preemption"
- Secondary claim: "The Dodd-Frank textual argument (exclusive jurisdiction clause predates gambling-adjacent prediction markets) is the strongest legal theory for state resistance because it attacks the textual basis, not the policy wisdom, of CFTC preemption"
- Note: Do NOT extract a claim attributing this to "deep partisanship" — the bipartisan composition is the finding that challenges that framing.

**Context:** This filing came one day after CFTC sued four states (April 24) and one day before Wisconsin filed its own lawsuit (April 25). The multi-track escalation compressed into 72 hours is the densest regulatory development in the tracking series.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[futarchy-based fundraising creates regulatory separation because there are no beneficial owners and investment decisions emerge from market forces not centralized control]]
WHY ARCHIVED: The bipartisan coalition is a structural finding, not a partisan one. 38 AGs across the political spectrum opposing CFTC preemption on textual grounds makes the SCOTUS path less certain and the political economy of prediction market regulation more complex than any prior analysis captured.
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the textual argument (Dodd-Frank doesn't mention gambling) and the bipartisan composition as separate findings. Don't conflate them with the merits of the preemption question — they're distinct analytical points.
