Flood v. Kuhn

Flood v. Kuhn appears in How we got free agents in baseball as the [[SupremeCourt|Supreme Court]] case where [[CurtFlood|Curt Flood]] challenged [[MajorLeagueBaseball|Major League Baseball]]’s [[BaseballReserveClause|reserve clause]]. The source says Flood’s lawyer framed the reserve clause as a group boycott, blacklist, and restraint of trade.

The Court ruled against Flood, saying that any inconsistency in baseball’s antitrust status should be fixed by [[UnitedStatesCongress|Congress]] rather than the Court. In the episode’s interpretation, the case still mattered because it made [[PublicOpinionLitigationStrategy|public opinion]] and player leverage stronger even though it preserved the [[BaseballAntitrustExemption|baseball antitrust exemption]].

Connections

• Curt Flood, Bowie Kuhn, Arthur Goldberg, Supreme Court, and Major League Baseball - legal-case actors.
• Baseball Reserve Clause, Baseball Antitrust Exemption, Public Opinion Litigation Strategy, and Baseball Free Agency - concepts shaped by the case.