Puerto Rico Cockfighting Ban Can Take Effect, First Circuit Says

A federal cockfighting ban can take effect Dec. 20 in Puerto Rico, pending an appeal of a ruling refusing to block the statute outlawing the island’s “national sport,” a divided First Circuit ruled.

The 2-1 panel rejected an emergency stay petition by Club Gallistico de Puerto Rico Inc., the cockfighting club that led the unsuccessful challenge. Judge Juan R. Torruella dissented, saying “nothing would be lost” by delaying the ban temporarily.

“This is a law which was passed without Puerto Ricans having any participation in its enactment, which concerns matters that have a long tradition in local history,” Torruella wrote. “The least that should be done is stay its enforcement until they are heard.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit will still hear the case, but its refusal to temporarily block the law—on the eve of its taking effect—signals that the appeal is a long shot.

The lawsuit blasts the ban, which passed as part of the 2018 farm bill, as a paternalistic assault on a “cultural right of all Puerto Ricans.” The ban is hugely unpopular on the island.

Unfair stereotypes of cockfighting as an “illegal and dangerous sport, played primarily by thieves and minorities,” are behind the ban, according to the suit. Cockfighting is heavily regulated, with weight classes and professional judges authorized to stop one-sided fights, it claims.

There’s also no basis for Congress to regulate Puerto Rico as a state rather than a territory under the U.S. Constitution’s “territorial clause,” the suit alleged.

Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí of the District of Puerto Rico ruled for the government in October. The ban can go into effect despite near-unanimous opposition from top Puerto Rico officials, he said.

Congress “has the undeniable authority to treat the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico uniformly to the states,” Gelpí found.

Club Gallistico filed its appeal last month, then asked the court Dec. 8 to stay Gelpi’s ruling while the case moves forward.

The judge wrongly “downplayed” constitutional concerns “unique” to Puerto Rico, according to the motion. Cockfighting there doesn’t affect interstate commerce, and the law also violates the “anti-commandeering doctrine,” which prohibits the government from coercing the states into enforcing federal policy, the motion argued.

Chief Judge Jeffrey R. Howard and Judge Sandra L. Lynch rejected the request without comment over Torruella’s dissent.

Club Gallistico is represented by Felix Roman & Associates and Ojeda & Ojeda Law Offices PSC. The government is represented by the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

The case is Club Gallistico de P.R. Inc. v. United States, 1st Cir., No. 19-2236, 12/19/19.