Many remember the ill-fated attempt in the mid-1980s by the city of Baltimore to utilize eminent domain to seize the Colts under a law passed by the Maryland Legislature. Colts’ then-owner Robert Irsay moved the team in the dead of night to take a deal offered by Indianapolis. In an eerie echo of this, the Governor of Maryland is seeking legislature to seize the Preakness, the second jewel of horse racing’s triple crown. An excellent blog by the Wall Street Journal’s law blog outlines the difficulties of the case in detail and links to a number of newspaper articles giving background on this dispute.

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