Legal Brief # 2
Flood v. Kuhn, 407 U.S. 258 (1972)
Plaintiff v. Defendant
Case No. 407 U.S. 258
Parties: (Plaintiffs)
Curtis Charles Flood
Defendant
Commissioner of Baseball Bowie K. Kuhn
Statement of issues: The question is whether "to rule that professional baseball's reserve
system is within the reach of federal antitrust laws." Mr. Flood was traded to the Philadelphia
Phillies without his knowledge or consent after playing for the St. Louis Cardinals for 11
seasons. As a free agent, Flood could have chosen his own compensation package. "Flood
refused to play for the Philadelphia Eagles and filed suit against the league alleging antitrust and
civil rights violations along with peonage and involuntary servitude."
Arguments of the Plaintiffs: If baseball is considered interstate commerce, it is
therefore illegal to trade baseball players without their consent in violation of Sherman Antitrust
Law. The baseball player should not have to stay with one team for their entire career, Flood
said.
Arguments of the Defendant: It was erroneously handed down, Kuhn said, and the
reserve system was clearly an unreasonable restriction on trade. This is not true, he said.
Holding of the court: Even if some might argue that underneath the consistency is an
inconsistency, there is merit in being consistent in these circumstances. The court ruled that
Commissioner Bowie K. Kuhn, the MLB, and its teams had not violated antitrust laws. A
number of lawsuits have been filed against the MLB alleging that antitrust laws have been
violated, but case precedent has shown that antitrust laws have never been found to have been
violated in the past.
Rationale: “In view of all this, it seems appropriate now to say that Professional baseball
is a business and it is engaged in interstate commerce, with its reserve system enjoying
exemption from the federal antitrust laws, baseball is, in a very distinct sense, an exception and
anomaly. Federal Baseball and Toolson have become an aberration confined to baseball, it is an
aberration that has been with us now for half a century, one heretofore deemed fully entitled to
the benefit of stare decisis, and one that has survived the Court’s expanding concept of interstate
commerce.”
