Charles Kramer, The Levison Group
In a shocking display of judicial activism, a judge recently eradicated the rookie home run record of fabled New York Yankee superstar Joe DiMaggio. Although we here at the Levison Group attempt to pen balanced, unemotional articles for publication in this space, the thought that a judge would believe that using the tools of our judicial system to alter landmarks precious to America’s pasttime is somehow appropriate, leaves no alternative but outrage! — Wait? What’s that? It wasn’t a court ruling? A baseball player, NAMED Judge, eliminated the record? He did it by simply hitting more home runs in a shorter period of time? Oops! My bad. Never mind…
The truth is, that although a court ruling may not have been responsible for the recent rewriting of the Yankee record book, judicial proclamations have been having quite an impact on sports this year.
In January, for example, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by University of Pennsylvania student-athletes who said they should be considered employees,
In May, a California federal judge dismissed nearly all of the claims brought by former NFL players against the league and its teams. The suit alleged the league’s 32 teams promoted painkiller abuse in order to keep injured players playing, and did so without disclosing the long-term risks of the practice, and by violating the Controlled Substances Act. The judge found that the claims were too broad and lacked sufficient specificity. Only few specific claims of certain players against a few teams now remain.
Then, last month, the Supreme Court invalidated the Patent and Trademark Office’s ban on registering offensive trademarks, saying it violated the First Amendment. The ruling takes a legal arrow out of the quiver of those seeking to compel the NFL’s Washington Redskins and other sports teams to change names and logos they assert are disparaging to one or more groups of people. The Redskins had previously seen the trademark registrations of their intellectual property revoked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and their case seeking reinstatement has been on hold. The High Court ruling clears the way for the renewal of the Redskins’ marks. The ruling will also help baseball’s Cleveland Indians in their attempts to salvage their “Chief Wahoo” logo.
The judicial system also came down in favor of the established sports league again last month when a US District judge in Illinois dismissed the four-year-old suit brought by the family of deceased hockey player Derek Boogaard. That action accused the league of negligence in connection with Boogaard’s eventual death from a drug overdose that occurred while he was dealing with the effects of a concussion.
It has been a busy six months in the realm of Courts and Sports. However, there is still more fun on the horizon. Just this past week, the NBA, Palace Sports & Entertainment (the company that owns the Detroit Pistons) and Olympia Entertainment were added as parties to a federal lawsuit seeking to compel a vote on whether $34.5 million in public funding should be used to finance the Pistons move to downtown Detroit.
At least in the Pistons case, the parties in court are fighting over a court….
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©2017 under analysis distribution, LLC. Charles S Kramer is a principal of the St Louis based law firm, Riezman Berger, PC. Under analysis is a nationally syndicated column of the Levison Group. Comments or criticisms about this column can be sent to the Levison Group c/o this paper or direct to comments@levgroup.com
