This case involved, if I recall correctly, a sort-of equal protection challenge to a state video poker ban in North Carolina on grounds that the N.C. tribes have gaming compacts, etc. Lower court opinion here.

From TV via Pechanga:

Appeals court judges hearing arguments Wednesday on the legality of North Carolina’s video poker ban sounded wary of negating the will of the General Assembly when it granted an exception to machines on the Cherokee Indian reservation.

Two of the three judges on the panel of the state Court of Appeals, which considered a Wake County judge’s ruling earlier this year that overturned the 2006 law, peppered an attorney for an amusement machine vendor with questions about why it should step into a legislative policy question.

Video poker machines could be permitted again in all 100 counties should the lower court keep the ruling in place.

“I always thought that the Legislature set public policy,” Judge Robert Hunter of Marion asked Hugh Stevens, representing vendor McCracken and Amick Inc., which sued over the ban. “You seem to argue that this is somehow contrary to the public policy of the state.” Continue reading →