Redeeming the Supreme Court: The Structure Behind the Baseball Trilogy and the Scope of the Baseball Antitrust Exemption

Authors

Christian L. Neufeldt, Harvard University, Extension School

Abstract

This article conducts a systematic, methodological, and historical analysis of the baseball trilogy to elucidate its underlying structure. It adds to the existing scholarship by analyzing the later decisions in the context of their predecessors and exposing the interplay within the baseball trilogy. As a result, this article argues, against nearly universal opposition, that the Supreme Court issued well-considered opinions in each case and created a logical structure that underlies the entire trilogy. This article then scrutinizes the different approaches taken by the lower courts to delimitate the baseball antitrust exemption. It uses its structural findings on the baseball trilogy to evaluate the validity of these approaches. The article then examines the valid features of each approach in order to provide a benchmark to understand the full scope of the antitrust exemption.

Recommended Citation

Christian L. Neufeldt, Redeeming the Supreme Court: The Structure Behind the Baseball Trilogy and the Scope of the Baseball Antitrust Exemption, 27 J. Intell. Prop. L. 21 (2020).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol27/iss1/3