Week 1: Sports Law Misnomers: Internal v. External Regulation
– Professor thinks there is something called sports law â fight between external and internal regulation.
– Others think that itâs just regular common law applied to sports
Crouch v. NASCAR: Courts will generally not step in to regulate private entities. General view is non-judicial interference.
o Exception:
§ If youâre following the law or basic rudiments of due process.
§ Or if you are applying your rules arbitrarily or capriciously, or with bad faith. (MâBaye v. WBA â second exception)
Dismal Swamp â The courts would be interpreting rules only the private organizations are supposed to be interpreting â courts should not interpret because they do not have the expertise.
Week 2: Internal Regulation of Pro Sports, Part I
– Role of the commissioner. Determining in-game rules. Determining off-the-field rules. Gambling in sports. Jurisdictional issues.
(Yankees) v. Johnson:
o The court also stated the act which was performed did not fall under the commissionerâs duty â only overt acts that occur on the field can the commissioner punish.
o Blacksox scandal gave new power to Commissioner, making him no longer weak.
MLB Constitution:
o Article II The Commissioner
§ Article 2 Functions of Commissioner
· 2(a) â CEO of MLB
· 2(b) â able to investigate complaints
· 2(c) â make determinations and hand out sanctions
§ Section 3 â list of Commissionerâs powers Article 3 The Executive Council This is in contrast to the NBA and NHL, they keep their commissioner to have less power to have their decisions appealable to the executive council, but not so in MLB
§ Article 6 Arbitration â The arbitrator is the Commissioner â the teams chose the commissioner and sign he contract
Milwaukee Am. Assân. v. Landis (Northern District of Ill. 1931):
o The Commissioner is given almost unlimited discretion in the determination of whether or not a certain state of facts creates a situation detrimental to the national game of baseball
o Standard to overturn a Commissionerâs arbitration ruling in the Illinois Cort, is if the decision is arbitrary or fraudulent
Finley v. Kuhn: Arbitrary and capricious
o The Commissioner does have the authority to determine whether any act, transaction, or practice is not within the best interests of baseball, and upon such a determination, to take whatever preventive or remedial action he deems appropriate, whether or not the act, transaction, or practice complies with the ML Rules or involves moral turpitude.
o Arbitrary and capricious
Turner v. Bowie Kuhn: Commissioner went beyond his power by sanctioning a penalty not in the ML Baseball agreement.
Chicago v. Vincent: Commissioner canât unilaterally amend the NL Constitution simply because he finds that a constitutional provision or procedure is not in the best interest of baseball.
o How to reconcile Finley, Turner and Vincent: Finley allows you to react in the best interests of base
r â only can be done when the arbitrator is not arbitrating a specific dispute â once that dispute is arbitrated, then they can be removed
· NFL â Any neutral arbitrator, picked from AAA list.
– Baseball CBA
o CBA review standard â just cause (player v team dispute)
o Constitution review standard â arbitrary and capricious (team v. team dispute)
§ Easier to overturn standard of just cause than standard of arbitrary and fraudulent.
MLBPA and Commissioner (Steve Howe Case): Any penalty imposed by the Commissioner must be âreasonably commensurate with the offenseâ and âappropriate, given all the circumstances.â
o The players and league never agreed (re: bargained over) to the Players Drug Policy and Prevention Program (PDPPP). The lifetime ban was not appropriate given all the circumstances, since MLB had not followed through on the recommended aftercare program provided by Howeâs physician after his last offense. Player reinstated.
o this is an arbitration case
Pete Rose v. Giamatti: Fundamental constitutional issue in this case is to what extent should public law, through judges, venture to overturn decisions made by private leagues, speaking through their commissioners?
