NFL Lawyer Faces Skeptical Justices in Bid for Antitrust Pass
U.S. Supreme Court justices yesterday appeared skeptical of an assertion that the National Football League is a single entity that is exempt from the antitrust laws.
The argument was that as a single unit, the NFL can’t be accused of conspiring with itself to violate the antitrust laws, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Stories in the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and National Law Journal all viewed the NFL argument as an apparent loser, based on the justices’ reactions. The antitrust claim was brought by Chicago-area hat maker American Needle after the NFL refused to renew its license for hats with NFL logos and gave an exclusive contract to Reebok.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor was blunt when she told NFL lawyer Gregg Levy, “You are seeking through this ruling what you haven’t gotten from Congress: an absolute bar to an antitrust claim.”
The New York Times reports on another exchange that caused trouble for Levy. It began when Justice Antonin Scalia asked just how far the separate NFL teams could go in acting as a single unit.
“So does that mean they can agree to fix the price at which their franchises will be sold, by concerted agreement, because, after all, they are worthless apart from the NFL?” Scalia asked.
Levy said yes.
“Ooh,” Scalia answered. “I thought I was reducing it to the absurd.”
Prior coverage:
ABA Journal: “A League of Their Own”
