Newswise — Through her various judicial experiences, newly appointed U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor has participated in several influential sports law decisions. Adam Epstein, Central Michigan University law professor and authority on sports law, is available to discuss the most recognized sports law-related cases Judge Sotomayor has participated in and how her opinions have influenced American law in this arena thus far.
A few of Epstein's initial thoughts on the subject:
"¢ "Two of the most recognized sports law decisions Judge Sotomayor has participated in include decisions involving Major League Baseball in 1995 and the 2004 opinion involving former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett.
"¢ "In the Major League Baseball case, Sotomayor issued an injunction that prevented the team owners from unilaterally instituting a new contractual agreement with the players who had been on strike for eight months. In fact, the World Series had been cancelled as a result of that strike. Four days after her opinion, the strike ended and the players and their union declared victory because the expired collective bargaining agreement had to remain in effect as a result of her decision.
"¢ "In Clarett's case, he sued the NFL, claiming that the league policy related to minimum "age" violated federal antitrust law, believing that it was illegal to prevent him draft eligibility even though the NFL said he had not yet been out of high school long enough to be in the pool of possible draftees. Sotomayor, now as an appellate judge, authored the opinion, which actually reversed the decision of the District Court that previously had ruled in favor of Clarett. Her reasoning was that the NFL's draft eligibility rules were immune from antitrust scrutiny under the non-statutory labor exemption and, therefore, Clarett had to wait one more year."
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