The US Supreme Court denied certiorari today in the fantasy baseball case of Major League Baseball Advanced Media v. CBC Distribution. That dispute had formed the basis of my April Fools Day hoax, claiming that cert had been granted but that a dispute arose when three members of the Court recused themselves due to participation in a fantasy league, and two others did not.
The suit revolved around the use of real statistics generated by players at the major league level for use in fantasy leagues, when major league baseball claimed that those that wanted to use the stats needed to pay a licensing fee, while plaintiff CBC, which runs a service for fantasy players, claimed no such fee was needed under the First Amendment. Since the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals had sided with CBC, Major League Baseball has now definitively lost the case.
The hoax, and the underlying legal and baseball issues of recusal that inspired it, was the subject of a second post: Deconstructing a Fantasy (And Who Was Duped?) The brief order did not mention anyone recusing themselves for participating in a fantasy baseball league.
The dispute over when court members should recuse themselves, however, remains unresolved.
See also: Sam Alito Talkin’ Baseball (and Antitrust): (Tony Mauro @ Blog of Legal Times)