Sport and the Law: Historical and Cultural Intersections ed. by Samuel O. Regalado and Sarah K. Fields (review)

Sport and the Law is a collection of nine essays written by scholars in history, law, and American studies. Edited by Samuel O. Regalado and Sarah K. Fields, two distinguished historians of sport, the book explores several landmark court cases in the post–World War II era in which sport and law intersect and the impact those cases have had on American society. The book is divided into three sections: “The Burger Supreme Court and Sports,” “Antitrust Law and Sports,” and “The Impact of Sport on Law.”

The first section explores three legal cases decided by the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Warren Burger between 1971 and 1972. In “Clay, aka Ali v. U.S. (1971): Muhammad Ali, Precedent, and the Burger Court,” Samuel O. Regalado examines the boxing champion’s challenge to the military draft as a conscientious objector at the height of the Vietnam War. By crafting an insightful history of the evolution of the Court’s interpretation of “conscientious objector,” Regalado demonstrates that Ali’s victory in the Court was indeed “his greatest of all.” Sarah K. Fields’s essay “Old Bedfellows: Spencer Haywood and Justice William O. Douglas” considers the significance of the Court’s decision on the antitrust lawsuit of Haywood v. National Basketball Association, in which the plaintiff successfully forced the NBA to relax its eligibility rule for post–high school graduates. The Haywood case “inevitably opened the doors of the NBA to the likes of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James” (20). Richard C. Crepeau’s essay “The Flood Case, 1972” offers a comprehensive analysis of the last Supreme Court decision that failed to strike down baseball’s reserve clause. The legacy of the case, however, was far more complicated than appears at first glance. Crepeau summons up various opinions on the case by most-distinguished baseball scholars and offers the reader an opportunity to develop his/her own insight into the case within the broader context of sport in American culture.

The second section considers two lower-level court cases regarding antitrust issues. In “Danny Gardella and Baseball’s Reserve Clause,” Ron Briley vividly renders Gardella as the first player to challenge baseball’s antitrust violation and effectively to expose the vulnerability of MLB’s reserve clause in the late 1940s. Thomas M. Hunt and Janice S. Todd’s essay “Powerlifting’s Watershed” also addresses antitrust issues but in a different context. It discusses the degree of control sport organizations can exert over their members, how much power an international federation can exercise on national organizations, and the culture of performance-enhancing drugs, which collectively led to the disintegration of the sport, once a budding field of athletic endeavor.

The third section focuses on three cases that have more immediate implications for human rights issues at the present time. In “Thirty-Five Years after Richards v. USTA,” Anne L. DeMartini discusses the continued significance of transgender athletes’ participation in sport: “While the cultural and legal landscape has progressed, transgender athletes still face discrimination in both sport and broader society” (114). Arturo J. Marcano and David P. Fidler’s essay “Clear Up the Abuses” examines Major League Baseball’s (MLB) exploitative operation in Latin America. Neither the United States nor international laws have any meaningful enforcement power over the MLB’s operation in the region. In its pursuit to tap into the wealth of underaged talent, the MLB has basically abandoned “rule-of-law” protocols in Latin American countries. In “A Matter of Basic Fairness,” Daniel A. Nathan delves into the pending lawsuit, led by former UCLA basketball standout Ed O’Bannon, against the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s policy that prohibits past and present student-athletes from profiting from their own image. While the plaintiffs seek mainly monetary compensations, Nathan argues that the suit has brought more...