The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued the state of Louisiana on 13 November 2026 to void a state court order that shut down more than 30 companies offering event contracts to Louisiana residents.
The suit, announced in a CFTC press release, asks a US District Court to invalidate the temporary restraining order issued on 12 November and to confirm that event contracts fall under federal oversight through the Commodity Exchange Act. The commission said the state order was issued without giving the companies notice or an opportunity to be heard.
The 12th state taken to court
Louisiana is the 12th state the CFTC has sued to defend its exclusive jurisdiction over derivatives markets, which Congress granted it under the Commodity Exchange Act. The agency has also filed amicus briefs in four federal Courts of Appeal and one state Supreme Court, so the federal court campaign now runs on every track it has.
The fight began when Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill filed suit against roughly 30 entities in state court on 12 November and won a restraining order the same day. That order bars the companies from offering event contracts to Louisiana residents unless they hold the gambling licences the state requires. Murrill’s case rests on states’ rights and the long history of state gambling regulation.
For traders active on prediction market platforms, the immediate effect was a cutoff: the state order removed Louisiana residents from CFTC-regulated designated contract markets, futures commission merchants and derivatives clearing organisations overnight. It is the latest escalation in a federalism dispute that will shape where event contracts, and the flows around them, can legally trade. The CFTC has already cleared new products in this space, including perpetual futures on individual US stocks, and firms continue to register with the CFTC as futures commission merchants, so the jurisdiction question touches a growing part of the derivatives market.
Selig: keep the status quo
CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said the federal lawsuit is meant to hold things steady while the courts decide. “The Commission’s lawsuit seeks to maintain the status quo while the federal courts decide this issue in an orderly manner,” he said in the release. He also stated that event contracts have traded openly in Louisiana for years in compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.
The release pulls no punches in the other direction: it calls the state’s emergency lawsuit “naked lawfare and a cynical political stunt”, attributed to Selig. Separately, Kalshi and Polymarket US each filed their own federal lawsuits against Louisiana officials in October 2026 arguing federal preemption.
Dates to watch
A motion hearing in the federal case is scheduled for 17 November 2026. A related hearing in state court is set for 30 November 2026.
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Saqib Iqbal
