Supreme Court exempts baseball from antitrust law, May 29, 1922

By Andrew Glass

On the day in 1922, the US Supreme Court unanimously carved out an exception for Major League Baseball to the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 — one that applies to this day — by holding that the sport was not engaged in interstate commerce.

In January 1915, the Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League sued the American and National leagues, alleging that they had violated the act, which is designed to bar monopolies from engaging in interstate commerce.

The league chose the US District Court presided over by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a reputed trustbuster, to hear their case. It turned out, however, that Landis was an ardent Chicago Cubs fan who was loath to do anything that might, in his eyes, damage his beloved national sport.

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