Law360: Tribes, Maine Seek Wins In Churchill Downs Gambling Dispute

May 14, 2026

Law360 wrote this week about the Wabanaki Nations’ coordinated effort to defend Maine’s new iGaming statute from a challenge in federal court, a case involving Drummond Woodsum that could have significant tribal sovereignty implications.

Churchill Downs, which owns and operates the Oxford Casino Hotel, sued the head of the Maine Gambling Control Unit in January, arguing the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment by granting the Wabanaki a race-based monopoly over iGaming.

But the four tribes of the Wabanaki Nations, which intervened as a party in the suit last month, argued in a recent motion for summary judgment that Maine has the authority to engage with them as sovereign governments.

“For equal protection purposes, that means laws like the [Maine] act that benefit tribal nations draw political classifications — not racial ones — and must be upheld so long as they satisfy rational basis review,” the Nations’ brief reads.

Drummond Woodsum attorney Melissa Hewey is representing the Wabanaki Nations in this case alongside two lawyers from the Native American Rights Fund.

Read the full story at law360.com.