Category Archives: Legal History

Baseball and the Law

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It’s opening day for major league baseball.  As throngs converge on Nationals Park and other stadiums we (i.e. those of us at work/in class instead of at the game!) can take a moment to remember the unique legal status of baseball in all of sports: i.e. its antitrust exemption.

Well timed for the start of the new season, UCLA Law Professor Stuart Banner has just published a concise history of baseball’s antitrust exemption—The Baseball Trust. Banner traces the sport’s legal battles highlighted by the Supreme Court’s 1922 decision in Federal Club v. National League (holding federal antitrust laws do not apply to baseball), reaffirmed 50 years later in Flood v. Kuhn— a decision that famously devotes its introductory paragraphs to a history of “The Game.”

 

Happy Ratification Day!

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Under Article VII of the U.S. Constitution: “The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.” On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution, allowing it to become the nation’s governing document.

Want to learn more about Constitutional History?  Two sources for GMUSL patrons to explore are:

HeinOnline’s Legal Classics Library:  Includes more than 2,700 works “from some of the greatest legal minds in history.” The collection focuses on constitutional law, comparative law, and political science.  Browse by  title, name, author, or subject.

The Making of Modern Law Primary Sources, 1620-1926:  Searchable digital archive that includes published records of the American colonies and state constitutional conventions.

Celebrating African American History Month

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As each president has since 1996, President Obama proclaimed February as National African American History Month.  This year’s theme is “Black Women in American Culture and History.”  In honor of this celebration, below are the names of a few of the African American women who have been pioneers in the legal profession:

Viloette M. Anderson First African American woman lawyer to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court (1926)
Jane M. Bolin FirstAfrican American graduate of Yale Law School (1931) and the first to become a judge (1939)
Lani Guinier First tenured African American woman professor at Harvard Law School (1998)
Amalya Kearse First African American woman appointed to a United States Court of Appeals (1979)
Constance B. Motley First African American woman appointed to the Federal Judiciary (1966)
Charlotte E. Ray First African American woman to become an attorney (1872)

To learn more about National African American History Month, please visit the Library of Congress website here.