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SALT LAKE CITY — Professional baseball has been exempt from antitrust laws governing other businesses and sports leagues for more than a century, thanks to a 1922 Supreme Court decision involving the Federal League.
Now, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is trying to end that exemption, and introduced SB2010, or the Competition in Professional Baseball Act, along with Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to do just that.
"The time has come to strike out the outdated and unequal treatment that has long benefited the MLB," the senators said in a joint statement. "Just as teams fiercely compete on the diamond, every sports league should operate under the same antitrust regulations. Our bill will level the playing field, removing the century-old exemption that has given the MLB an unfair advantage."
The exemption was created by the Supreme Court's decision in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, in which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that baseball games are not traditional interstate commerce, but exhibitions exempt from antitrust laws, according to the Associated Press.
In a news release, Lee said the exemption limits fair competition in baseball, but also pointed to a pair of recent decisions made by the league and an individual club he appears to disagree with. He said competition is needed "particularly in light of recent controversies surrounding the Dodgers Pride Night and the relocation of the All-Star Game from Atlanta."
In 2021, the league moved its All-Star Game from Truist Park in Atlanta to Coors Field in Denver after Georgia's Republican governor signed a law that limited voter access for many residents. Colorado has some of the most inclusive voting laws in the nation, according to NPR.
The second controversy unfolded more recently, when the Los Angeles Dodgers invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a satirical LGBTQ group, to be honored at the team's Pride Night. The group is known for its mostly male performers who dress flamboyantly as nuns.
The team initially rescinded the invitation following backlash from conservative Catholics who said the performers mocked their faith, but ultimately re-invited them to be honored. Several hundred people protested the team's decision outside the stadium before Pride Night on June 16, according to ESPN.
Lee isn't the only politician to take aim at Major League Baseball recently, and just last year, the criticism came from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who caucuses with Senate Democrats and is a prominent ally to organized labor, asked Congress to rescind baseball's exemption after MLB and the players' union reached a new labor agreement to end a months-long lockout.
"We are dealing with an organization controlled by a number of billionaires who collectively are worth over $100 billion," he said in a statement on March 10, 2022. "It should be clear to all that these baseball oligarchs have shown that they are far more concerned about increasing their wealth and profits than in strengthening our national pastime."
The Big League Utah coalition — which includes the Larry H. Miller Company, Jazz owner Ryan Smith and Gov. Spencer Cox — recently launched an effort to lure a major league expansion club to Salt Lake City.
It's unclear if the Competition in Professional Baseball Act will garner the bipartisan support necessary to advance in the Democrat-controlled Senate. The bill was introduced June 15 and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Lee, Cruz and Hawley sit.
