Supreme Court granted certiorari today in the “Fantasy Baseball” case of CBC Distribution

And William Rehnquestec calls ‘em as he sees them…

The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari today in the “Fantasy Baseball” case of CBC Distribution v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media. The suit is remarkable not only for the First Amendment and right to publicity issues that form the basis of the dispute, but because Justices John Paul Stevens, Samuel Alito and Stephen Breyer recused themselves due to their participation in a fantasy baseball league comprised of current and past court personnel. Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who also participate in the league, declined to disqualify themselves, exposing a non-ideological split in the court on the issue of when justices should step aside when conflicts appear.

...Neither Justice Scalia or his teammate Justice Ginsburg—who came of age in Brooklyn during the late 40s and 50s of the storied Dodgers, and who wrote the court’s opinion in U.S. v. Cleveland Indians—will step aside, however, despite their participation in the league and the law’s straightforward language. Scalia had famously failed to to recuse himself in a 2004 case involving his friend and hunting partner Vice President Dick Cheney. He wrote, “If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court Justice can be bought so cheap, the Nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined.”