Scholarly article on Curt Flood\u27s lawsuit against major league baseball over the right to be a free agent

Spaeth, Harold J.

English

Digital Commons@Lindenwood University

Lindenwood University Digital Commons@Lindenwood University Curt Flood Baseball Clippings 1972 The Supreme Court Computer Harold J. Spaeth Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/cflood  Part of the United States History Commons .. For : Buel Goode R- Squared, Inc. PO Box l5b7 Stuc:Uo City, Ca • 91604 Fr0m : H~rold Spoeth Dept . Politi c~l Science Mi chig~n Stat& l~iv . E. LRnsing , Mich. THE SUPREME COURT COHPUTER by HAr old J . Spaeth Bas1::ball and the Law Within the next two months the Supreme Cnurt will decide whetr:er profession~l baseball shAll r em:-i in immune from the antitrust l t=1ws. <.. Last Fall, the Court agreed t o haRr Curt F] o~ suit. Flood , a forner s t a r out fielder for the St. Louis C1-il'din~ls, ch~llcnged baseball' s reser ve cl~use, which eives a player absolutely no choi c-:! of the club he -wishes to pla:,r for • . The orieins of Floorl I s cnse go bacic r ifty ye;:irs . In not constitute interstate C'or.ir1erce, and hence v.•as beyond the scone of the antj trit$t lRWS. In 1953, by n 7 to 2 vote ) the Court re j ected an attnck upon baseball'~ reserve claus~ on the basis of the 1922 de-cision. The f'l:' jo!'i t:r <'ridcd thut if E-V 11:-. existed, Cu11grt::!•, s sho,1ld change the l,.,.i. Over the next few years, however , the federaJ courts subjnctcd other profession~l snorts t o the ahtit~ust l aws . In 1955 1-1nd 1 g57 , for ex.~mple , the Supreme Court held t hat boxing and football, resoectively , were covered by the anti-(more) ., Curt Flood ••• 2 ( • • • by the anti-) trust laws . The upshot i s that baseball now is the only spor t not specifically covered . How will the Ccurt decide Curt Flood ' s c::\se? Computer analysis ident ifies 79 cases decided since 1957 that involve ;:intitrnst l ~ws , exclusive of mergers between businesses . The votes of t he current justices in these cases are as follows : J ustlce Burger Bl acknnm Powell Rehnquist Dougl ns White Marsh;ill Brennan Stewart Competition T anti -◊-5 O 1 0 1 0 74 1~ 54- 3 14 1 70 9 35 41 _L 100~ 100% 100% 100% 95% 95% 93% 89% 46% This highly skewed pattern, heAvily shifted in opposition to restrictive bus iness activiti es , is also evi dent from an-alysis of the outcome of the se cases : Only 8 of ·the 79 de-cisions supported business (101,) , with 29 of the 71 pro-comp-etition (~nti- business ) decisions hnving been decided by a unanimous vote (41%) , including all six of the rmti trust cases decided so f ~r by the Burger co,lrt. On the other hand -- And notwi thstc=inding the f act tha t none of Pr esi dent Nixon ' s appointees hAve yet voted in fnvor of business in an antitrust case -- only Justices Dougl~s , Marshall, and Brennnn have shown support for the value of New Dealism, to which anti trust l aw pertain.s . New Dealism concerns attitudes to·,,ard P.conomic regulation and i s one of (trore ) Cur t Fl ood ••• 3 ( ••• i s one of) three values, along with freedom and eg11cili ty, which computer ana lysis has found to explain 85% of the Court ' s decisions . Suggestive of a decision aga inst Curt Flood is the presence of the 50-year - old precedent excluding ba seball from antitrust regulRtion. But the Court did agr ee to hear Curt Flood ' s case. And it is not likely -- given the demands upon the Court ' s time -- that the Court agreed to hear the case simply to reaffirm wha t it had decided b~ck i n 1 922 and 1953 . Accordingly, the Supreme Court Computer predicts thRt Curt Fl ood will win and b~seball will lose. The vote should be unanimous, but Justice Rehnquist mAy dissent. The decisi on, however , should be narrow in scope. Baseball will lose its i mmunity from the antitrust l aws , but the reserve sys t em will not be summarily junked . Lower courts will be asked to decide its 11reasomi.bleness" and what mod i fi cations should be mad e . The ulti rn;i te outcome, after s everal years of fur ther litigation, wi l l be to accord base-ball the same status under the antitrust l aws as obtains for other prof essional sports c ##II Distributed by R-Squared Syndicate 

The Supreme Court Computer

https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=cflood

The Supreme Court Computer

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