Major League Baseball struck out San Jose, California, in a case decided by the Ninth Circuit on Jan. 15, 2015. San Jose's challenge of MLB's rule that three-quarters of the teams must vote for a franchise relocation failed in connection with the attempt of San Jose to be the new home of the Oakland A's. The precedents used by the Ninth Circuit are not hot off the press, ranging from 1922 to 1972. As the Ninth Circuit stated, San Jose "joins the long line of litigants that have sought to overturn one of federal law's most enduring anomalies." The Ninth Circuit's fondness for sports precedents is likely to also affect the 2014 district court victory of a class of college athletes over the NCAA on the issue of payment for the use of their images.
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