The U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday that the National Football League may not escape antitrust scrutiny by claiming it functions as a "single entity". Am. Needle Inc. v. Nat'l Football League No. 08-861 (U.S. May 24, 2010).
The NFL theorized that the ban under section 1 of the Sherman Act on contracts, combinations, and conspiracies to restrain trade didn't apply to it because the league's members always (or almost always) acted in concert.
Blawgletter hasn't studied the opinion, which retiring Justice John Paul Stevens wrote, but it looks like a whopping loss for those who hoped to make section 1 a dead letter.
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