WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) announced today that he is leading an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn a century-old precedent that has long shielded professional baseball from the nation’s antitrust laws. Senator Lee serves as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights and is joined on the amicus brief by U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), the subcommittee’s Ranking Member.

“For too long, Major League Baseball has enjoyed an exemption from the competition laws that apply to every other professional sport and business in America,” said Senator Mike Lee. “As I’ve said before, baseball understands best of all the benefits of competition. Sadly, our Supreme Court has historically balked at the opportunity to overturn a wrongly decided case, and subject professional baseball to the same competition laws as every other professional sport. It is time for America’s pastime to be revitalized by the laws governing all American businesses.”

“For over a century, professional baseball has enjoyed a free pass to break the rules of fair competition because of a flawed Supreme Court ruling—one that the Court itself has acknowledged was a mistake,” said Senator Cory Booker. “The one-of-a-kind antitrust exemption gives leagues the power to artificially control salaries, ticket prices, team relocations, and more, harming players and baseball fans alike. It’s time the Court fix this error and ensure that baseball, like every other sport, plays by the same rules of fair competition.” 

Background

In 1922, the Supreme Court ruled that professional baseball was exempt from federal antitrust laws — a decision that has since been widely criticized as incorrectly decided. Although the Court has repeatedly acknowledged the ruling’s flaws over the years, it has declined to take responsibility for reversing it, leaving Congress or future Courts to act.

This exemption has allowed Major League Baseball to suppress player wages, divide markets, and restrict competition in ways that other leagues such as the NFL and NBA are prohibited from doing. The persistence of this outdated judicial carveout continues to distort the free market and disadvantage players, teams, and fans alike.

Senator Lee’s bipartisan amicus brief calls upon the Supreme Court to end this anomaly and by applying America’s antitrust laws uniformly across the professional sports industry. The brief argues that the Court has both the authority and the obligation to correct its past error and bring baseball into alignment with modern competition law.

Read the full text of the amicus brief here.

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