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PROVIDENCE -- It looks like a decision on the latest court challenge to a proposed West Warwick casino will come days, if not hours, before an Aug. 9 deadline to prepare ballots containing the casino question.
U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith yesterday scheduled a hearing for Aug. 7 at 1 p.m., giving himself just two days to rule on the case.
If the ballot is not set by Aug. 9, the state faces $1 million in extra preparation and printing costs, said Peter Kerwin, spokesman for Secretary of State Matt Brown.
Smith declined, through his clerk, to comment about how quickly a decision might be reached. But he told lawyers in an hour-long private meeting yesterday that he would have a ruling by Aug. 9 at the latest.
Late Friday, the Town of Johnston and a gambling company linked with Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block a question asking voters on Nov. 7 to amend the state Constitution.
That amendment, approved by the General Assembly last month, would allow the Narragansett Indian Tribe and Harrah's Entertainment to operate the state's only full-fledged casino, in West Warwick.
Trump Entertainment Resorts and developer David H. Nunes -- operating as Ajax Gaming Ventures -- have proposed a casino in Johnston. Their lawsuit says lawmakers violated the U.S. Constitution by granting Harrah's and the tribe a monopoly.
Governor Carcieri previously tried to block the casino but the state Supreme Court sidestepped the issue by saying Carcieri had no standing for a challenge.
The federal lawsuit by Johnston and Ajax Gaming and a motion for a preliminary injunction seek to have Smith force Brown to take the casino question off the ballot.
After meeting with a dozen lawyers yesterday, Smith scheduled the Aug. 7 hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction.
The lawyers represented Ajax, Brown, the tribe, West Warwick, Harrah's, Carcieri, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, Newport Grand and House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick.
Carcieri will not file a brief in the case, spokesman Jeff Neal said, because Lynch "will raise the same concerns that we have."
Lynch yesterday said people should be allowed a casino vote, but that the current proposal is a "distortion of the Constitution to prefer a few." He called it "constitutionally offensive."
The secretary of state prepares ballots for each of the state's 39 cities and towns, as well as test ballots and a host of materials. In all, Kerwin said, about 100 types of ballots will be printed.
The office also creates a voter information handbook describing each of the ballot questions presented to voters. Kerwin said 390,000 books in English and 100,000 printed in English and Spanish are mailed so they reach all of the state's voting households by Oct. 1.
The ballots cost about $700,000 to print and the books, $110,000, he said. Right now, Brown's office estimates that it would cost an extra $1 million if the state misses the Aug. 9 deadline. The secretary of state's office is working on a breakdown of how much one week's delay would cost, how much a two-week delay would cost and how much further delays would cost. The judge set Friday as the date that a stipulation of the facts is due. Briefs are due Aug. 2 and optional replies, Aug. 4.
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