The 2022 theme of digging up controversial Supreme Court cases has found its way to baseball. This time, in question is the hundred-year-old unanimous decision in the Federal Baseball Club v. National League case, which found that the business of baseball did not constitute interstate commerce and was therefore not subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act.
A bit of history
In 1922, the owner of the Federal League Baltimore Terrapins, Ned Hanlon, brought a case, Federal Baseball Club v. National League, against the National League, arguing that monopolistic agreements between National and American League teams to buy out certain Federal League teams – allowing them to join with the National and American league – caused the Federal League to fold.