Deadline In iMEGA Online Gambling Suit
Waiting till the very last minute, the US Department of Justice did submit an eighteen page response brief on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Reserve addressing the iMEGAs request for a temporary restraining order against the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEGA). Nothing new was presented and the eighteen pages basically repeats the arguments the DOJÂ have made in their previous motion to dismiss the suit. The DOJ is trying to argue for the dismissal based on the grounds that iMEGA does not have legal standing to pursue the case and that since regulations that the UIGEA calls for have not been brought forth yet, that the iMEGA case itself is *unripe* and therefore can not be settled. 
The government set a 270 day deadline from Oct 13th 2006 to have regulations in place to enforce the UIGEA. The government has missed that deadline and is now trying to use that missed deadline as an argument to dismiss this case. The DOJ wrote that the plaintiff is, *mischaracterizing the UIGEA as presuppos_ing the elimination of the online gambling industry and its direct/indirect supporters*, (Pl. Opp. At 9), the criminal prohibitions of the Act are rather limited.* IMEGA suit claims, *The action of gambling in private on the Internet is protected by First Amendment privacy concerns.* Hon. Judge Mary L. Cooper (3rd District/Trenton division) has set September 26th as the date to hear arguments in the case.