State Senator Bill Stanley (R-Franklin) is representing former race car driver Hermie Sadler in a lawsuit over skill games against Governor Glenn Youngkin, Attorney General Jason Miyares, and the Virginia ABC. In an August update to the lawsuit first filed against the previous administration, Sadler criticizes top finance legislators for modifying Virginia’s skill games ban through the budget and says the ban still violates free speech and due process rights.
“[A] select group of budget conferees, including Senator Howell and Delegate Barry Knight schemed to sneak into the delayed budget bill a purported amendment to the enjoined Skill Games Ban,” the updated lawsuit complaint states.
With support from Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment (R-James City) and Senate Finance Chair Janet Howell (D-Fairfax), the Virginia General Assembly outlawed skill games in 2020. Still, it postponed the ban until July 2021 so that the Commonwealth could collect tax revenue for the COVID Relief fund.
When the ban was about to take effect, plaintiffs, including Sadler, filed multiple lawsuits opposing the ban. Sadler operates a chain of truck stops that offers skill games.
In December 2021, a court issued an injunction blocking the ban from taking effect; that injunction is still in place while the lawsuit goes forward.
“Some legislators resented this Court’s entry of the Temporary Injunction. Senators Tommy Norment and Janet Howell submitted amicus curiae briefs in support of a failed appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court,” the updated complaint states.
The lawsuit also notes that opponents of skill games could not pass any new skill games legislation in 2022.
However, Virginia’s budgets are law as long as they are in effect, and legislators often bundle legislation into the budget to temporarily address situations where there is bipartisan agreement. The lawsuit criticizes the amendment to the skill games ban included in the budget, and criticizes Knight and Howell, the top finance negotiators.
“With this tactic, the conferees could exploit the budget as a figurative hostage to ensure passage of an unpopular bill that did not appropriate any funds, was wholly unrelated to the budget, and which was not appropriately considered by a legislative committee,” the lawsuit states.
Sadler’s lawsuit argues that the amendment to the ban doesn’t solve legal problems and creates new ones, including that the amendment to the ban violates a constitutional law that legislation can only address one object, in this case, the budget.
Sadler wants the court to keep the temporary block on enforcement in place and to make it permanent, allowing skill games to remain open. He’s also seeking a legal declaration that the law is unconstitutional and for the defendants to pay his attorneys fees.
Spokespeople for the administration and the Virginia ABC said they couldn’t comment on active litigation.
“As a result of the Skill Game Ban, Plaintiffs and many similarly situated convenience store, restaurant, and truck stop owners will lose an invaluable revenue stream all because of unconstitutional legislation that this Court should declare void and unenforceable,” the lawsuit states.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Bill Stanley” by Bill Stanley. Photo “Hermie Sadler” by Hermie Sadler. Background Photo “Virginia Capitol” by Martin Kraft. CC BY-SA 3.0.
