Major League Baseball

Supreme Court refuses to hear lawsuit by minor leaguers

Published Dec. 5, 2017 5:25 p.m. ET

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WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit filed by minor league baseball players accusing Major League Baseball of colluding to suppress wages, leaving intact a District Court ruling that dismissed the case.

In a one-sentence announcement Monday, the Supreme Court said it would not accept Miranda v. Selig, a suit filed by four minor leaguers in December 2014 alleging MLB's hiring and employment policies violated antitrust laws by restraining competition among teams and illegally depressing minor league salaries.

U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. dismissed the case the following September, citing the antitrust exemption granted professional baseball by the Supreme Court in 1922 and the failure of Congress to alter it for minor leaguers in the Curt Flood Act of 1998

Gilliam's decision was upheld this June in a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas, Ferdinand F. Fernandez and Mary H. Murguia.

Another federal lawsuit brought by a group of minor leaguers, Senne v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, could go to trial in the next few years. That case has been certified as a class action for minor leaguers who played in a California league, instructional league or extended spring training since February 2011 and argues MLB has violated minimum wage laws. MLB is appealing the class-action certification.

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