Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill is not backing down from a fight with Washington’s top derivatives regulator.
On November 14, 2026, she publicly described statements by CFTC Chairman Michael Selig about a federal lawsuit against her state as “flatly false.” The broader dispute is about who gets to police prediction markets, and it is turning very personal, very fast.
Murrill’s core argument is historical. She says states have regulated gambling for 250 years, and she sees no reason a federal agency should change that now.
The sequence moved quickly. On November 12, Murrill obtained a temporary restraining order from a Louisiana court.
That order targeted approximately 30–32 entities offering event contracts in Louisiana without state licenses. Event contracts are bets on whether something will happen, such as an election outcome or a cultural moment, structured as tradable financial products.
The order was issued ex parte, meaning the platforms were not present to argue their side before it was granted. It required the companies to geofence Louisiana, effectively blocking users in the state, and to obtain state licenses before offering the contracts.
Just days later, the CFTC and the US Department of Justice responded with a federal lawsuit. The defendants are Murrill and Louisiana’s state gaming regulators.
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