Andrew Salas v. United States

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

ANDREW SABLAN SALAS, No. 22-16936

Plaintiff-Appellant, D.C. No. 1:22-cv- 00008 v.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, OPINION

Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of the Northern Mariana Islands Ramona V. Manglona, Chief District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted February 12, 2024 Honolulu, Hawaii

Filed August 27, 2024

Before: Richard A. Paez, Milan D. Smith, Jr., and Lucy H. Koh, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Koh; Concurrence by Judge Paez SUMMARY *

Animal Welfare Act

The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a complaint brought by a resident of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (“CNMI”) alleging that the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America (the “Covenant”) precludes the application to the CNMI of a federal cockfighting prohibition. The Animal Welfare Act (“AWA”), 7 U.S.C. § 2156, as amended in 1976, prohibited animal fighting, with an exception that if a state or territory’s…