CFTC and Justice Department sue Arkansas over attorney general's Kalshi lawsuit

The federal government has sued Arkansas over its attempt to apply state gambling law to prediction markets. The United States and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a complaint against the State of Arkansas and Attorney General Tim Griffin, in his official capacity, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on November 12, 2026.

The complaint

The file-stamped first page shows the case as United States of America and Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. State of Arkansas; Tim Griffin, No. 4:26-cv-01255-BSM, filed in the court's Central Division in Little Rock. The 34-page filing is titled "Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief." The clerk's stamp assigns it to District Judge Miller and Magistrate Judge Ervin.

The complaint opens by citing the Commodity Exchange Act, which it says gives the CFTC "exclusive jurisdiction" over futures, options and swaps traded on federally regulated exchanges (7 U.S.C. § 2(a)(1)(A)). The plaintiffs say they bring the action "to halt Defendants' efforts to prohibit the operation of derivatives markets governed by federal law."

Its second paragraph points to November 4, 2026, when Arkansas, through Griffin, filed an enforcement action in state circuit court. That case, State of Arkansas ex rel. Griffin v. KalshiEX LLC (No. 32CV-26-717, Independence County), accuses Kalshi of offering illegal gambling under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The full complaint is now on the public docket. It is dated November 10, 2026, and was filed November 12. Its single count is brought under the Supremacy Clause. It alleges that the event contracts Arkansas has targeted are "swaps" under the Commodity Exchange Act and that the exchanges offering them, including Kalshi, are CFTC-regulated designated contract markets.

In the prayer for relief, the plaintiffs ask the court to declare that Arkansas state laws "violate the Supremacy Clause and are therefore preempted, unconstitutional, and invalid as applied to transactions listed, offered, or executed on CFTC-regulated DCMs"; to issue "a preliminary and permanent injunction" that would prohibit the defendants, "as well as their successors, agents, and employees, from investigating CFTC-regulated entities and their affiliates and partners for violations of, or enforcing, Arkansas state law as applied to" those transactions; and to award the plaintiffs their costs and fees. The public docket lists the complaint as ECF 1; it does not list a separate motion for a preliminary injunction. Claims in the complaint are allegations.

Other Arkansas cases

Two exchanges have already sued Griffin in federal court. Polymarket US filed in the Western District of Arkansas on November 9 (No. 1:26-cv-01076), and Crypto.com's OG.com filed in the Eastern District the same day (No. 4:26-cv-01226).

The United States and the CFTC have brought similar suits against other states, starting with Utah, and won a preliminary injunction against Illinois on October 30. Those cases are listed in AskSpinner's Kalshi and prediction market litigation tracker.

Updated November 13, 2026: Added the requested relief from the now-public 34-page complaint (ECF 1).