President Obama's First Supreme Court Appointment

With yesterday's announcement by Justice David Souter that he will be retiring at the conclusion of this current United States Supreme Court term, speculation has begun by those feverishly anticipating who President Barack Obama will appoint to replace the retiring Souter. One name that is at the forefront of the speculation is Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Many have opined that as a Latina Judge from the Bronx in New York City, that Judge Sotomayor represents the diversity and intellectual acuity that President Obama has indicated will guide his federal judicial appointments.

Those that follow Sports Law and this blog will readily recognize Judge Sotomayor's name as she has handed down some very important and controversial decisions in the realm of Sports and the Law in recent years. As a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Judge Sotomayor famously authored the Clarett v. NFL opinion that rejected the District Court's finding in favor of Clarett and essentially approved the NFL's age restriction rule in connection with the NFL draft. Judge Sotomayor in reversing Judge Scheindlin's finding in favor of Clarett, held that the NFL's eligibility rules were protected from antitrust attack by the nonstatutory labor exemption. Both Maurice Clarett (Ohio State) and Mike Williams (USC) were prohibited from entering the NFL draft early and both flamed out of the NFL spectacularly after being drafted in 2005.

In addition, "in what may be her best-known ruling, Judge Sotomayor issued an injunction against major league baseball owners in April 1995, effectively ending a baseball strike of nearly eight months, the longest work stoppage in professional sports history, which had led to the cancellation of the World Series for the first time in 90 years."

Whether or not President Obama selects Judge Sotomayor to replace Justice Souter, her impact on sports related jurisprudence has been significant.