By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear the latest case challenging Major League Baseball’s century-old exemption from federal antitrust law. The justices without comment turned down an appeal by a former franchise owner in Puerto Rico’s professional baseball league who sought to revive U.S. antitrust claims in an ongoing case against Puerto Rican league officials. Professional baseball has been insulated from federal antitrust claims since 1922, when the Supreme Court ruled that baseball involved local exhibitions and not interstate commerce.
The Puerto Rico lawsuit, filed in 2022 by Thomas Axon and other plaintiffs, alleged the U.S. territory’s pro baseball league — Liga de Béisbol Profesional de Puerto Rico — and others worked to block Axon’s efforts to restore his franchise through major new broadcast initiatives, better salaries, enhanced sponsorships and expanded merchandising.
Axon alleged the league seized his investor-operator interest without compensation or due process, and moved to box him out of the league. The defendants have denied any wrongdoing. U.S. District Judge William Young dismissed the lawsuit in 2023, citing the baseball exemption. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of federal antitrust claims last year, but said other parts of the lawsuit could move forward. The 1st Circuit suggested in its ruling that the antitrust exemption is out of touch with the modern realities of baseball but said the Supreme Court’s 1922 precedent still stands.
Axon and the other plaintiffs said in their Supreme Court appeal that the exemption has been stretched beyond Major League Baseball to improperly shield anticompetitive conduct in Puerto Rico’s independent winter league.
Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer for Axon, in a statement said they were disappointed their Supreme Court petition was denied and called the baseball exemption “an anachronism that should be overturned.” His client’s case will continue under federal civil rights and other laws.
Francisco Colón-Ramírez, the attorney representing the Puerto Rico league, said the Supreme Court’s ruling “represents an acknowledgement that Congress has chosen to leave the business of baseball antitrust exemption largely in place, as it has been for the last century.”
The Major League Baseball Players Association had filed a brief supporting Axon’s petition, urging the Supreme Court to eliminate what it called an “aberrational” judge-made shield. The players’ union, which is not a party to the lawsuit, argued the exemption enables anticompetitive tactics that harm minor leaguers and others. U.S. Senators Mike Lee and Cory Booker in another filing urged the justices to do away with the baseball exemption.
The Puerto Rico baseball league asked the Supreme Court to deny the petition, arguing that the plaintiffs’ franchise rights were terminated by their own breach of an investor-operator agreement.
The case is Cangrejeros de Santurce Baseball Club et al v. Liga de Béisbol Professional de Puerto Rico, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 25-416.
For petitioner: Jeffrey Kessler of Winston &amp; Strawn
For respondent: Francisco Ernesto Colón-Ramírez of Colon Ramirez
Read more:
US appeals court revives antitrust lawsuit over Puerto Rican baseball league
Bipartisan state coalition backs challenge to MLB’s antitrust immunity

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US Supreme Court declines to hear challenge to pro baseball’s antitrust shield