A Well-Paid Slave

by Brad Snyder

  231 Only Maddox: Elliott Maddox interview; Tom McCraw interview; Denny McLain interview; Denny Riddleberger interview.

  231 Maddox felt: Elliott Maddox interview.

  231 He first tried: Phone Log, 4/28/71, Goldberg Papers, Box I-135, Folder 5.

  231 Then, between 6:15 and 6:30: PI, 4/29/71, 31.

  232 Reichler arrived; “By way”: NYT, 4/29/71, 53; WP, 4/29/71, D1.

  232 “It’s not baseball”: “Curt Flood’s Troubles,” Newsweek, 5/10/71, 67; NYDN, 4/28/71, 100.

  232 Flood told Reichler he had been thinking: NYDN, 4/28/71, 104.

  232 For 20 minutes: PI, 4/29/71, 31.

  232 “I know”; “No, no”: NYT, 4/29/71, 53.

  232 settled into seat 3-F: NYP, 4/28/71, 86.

  232 refusing a request: WP, 4/28/71, D1.

  232 “big league”: WES, 4/28/71, C-3; WDN, 4/28/71, 72.

  232 “good riddance”: Shelby Whitfield interview.

  232 “was an act”: NYP, 4/29/71, 68.

  232 racial lines; “[I]f you have”: NYDN, 4/29/71, 113.

  232-33 “The Flood sympathizers”: WES, 4/29/71, E1.

  233 “If he wins”: WP, 5/5/71, D1; CST, 5/5/71, 114.

  233 Lieutenant Fred Grimes; “He’s running”: SPD, 5/3/71, 2B.

  233 mostly financial: WP, 5/5/71, D1; CST, 5/5/71, 114.

  233 Two days before he left: SPD, 5/25/71, 2C.

  233 Creditors had been hounding: CT, 5/12/71, F4.

  233 He avoided them: Charlie Wangner interview.

  233 Flood had been receiving: WDN, 4/29/71, 70; NYDN, 4/29/71, 113; TSN, 5/15/71, 5. Compare TSN, 8/4/73, 33 (placing the figure at “more than $40,000”).

  233 A week before he left: CDN, 8/19/71, sec. 4, 45.

  233 Short agreed: OT, 5/5/71, sports sec., 1, 45; CT, 5/12/71, F4.

  233 Otherwise, Flood: WP, 5/5/71, D1; CDN, 8/19/71, sec. 4, 45.

  234 Paul Porter had met: TSN, 4/17/71, 23.

  234 Flood remembered; “It seems clear”: CDN, 8/19/71, sec. 4, 45. An exception

  to Miller’s comment was Dick Young, who acknowledged that Flood had re- fused to declare bankruptcy to preserve his lawsuit. TSN, 5/22/71, 14.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Page

  235 It was later: NYT, 10/11/74, 1; WP, 10/13/74, A1; WSJ, 11/14/74, 8.

  235 He forced: Peter Edelman interview; “Arthur J. Goldberg’s Legacies to American Labor Relations,” 32 J. Marshall L. Rev. 667, 679-80 (1999).

  235 “I cannot be terribly”: Letter, Breyer to Goldberg, 11/30/70, Goldberg Papers, Box I-62, Folder 2.

  235 Paul, Weiss support staffers: NYT, 12/19/76, F11; Jay Topkis interview.

  236 Goldberg rented: WP, 8/4/71, C1.

  236 He told Marvin: Dick Moss interview.

  236 Of the more than 3,100: Report of the Study Group on the Caseload of the Supreme Court (Freund Report), 57 F.R.D. 573, 613 tbls. III & IV (1972). The number of cert petitions and cert grants excludes 133 death penalty petitions, all of which were granted because of the Court’s 1972 decision declaring capital punishment unconstitutional.

  236-37 Levitt knew; Levitt also knew; Goldberg often asked: Dan Levitt interview.

  237 “A review”: Supreme Court Rule, 19(1), 398 U.S. 1009, 1030 (1970).

  237 “Frequently”: O’Brien, Storm Center, 236, quoting T. Clark, “Internal Operations of the United States Supreme Court,” 43 Judicature 45, 48 (1959).

  238 “a most frustrating”; “the vagaries”; “so uniquely”: Flood v. Kuhn, 443 F.2d 264, 268 (2d Cir. 1971).

  238 “rectify”: Flood Cert Petition, 2, quoting Moragne v. State Marine Lines, Inc., 398 U.S. 375, 403 (1970).

  238 “undermined”; “creating”: Flood Cert Petition, 2-3.

  239 “The issues”: Baseball Cert Opposition, 20.

  239 no examination; “sudden”: Flood Reply Petition, 3.

  239 These recommendations: During the 1971 term, one law clerk in each chamber wrote a cert memo about every case. The following year, six of the justices began to divide the cert petitions among themselves in what became known as the cert pool.

  240 He wrote most of: Warren Papers, Box 631, Folder “Per Curiam Nos. 18, 23, and 24”; Burton Papers, Box 245, Folder 3.

  240 He also dissented: Boys Markets, Inc. v. Retail Clerks Union, Local 770, 398 U.S. 235, 257-61 (1970) (Black, J., dissenting).

  240 In his final years: Garrow, “Mental Decrepitude on the U.S. Supreme Court,” 67 U. Chi. L. Rev. 995, 1050-52 (2000).

  240 Harlan had saved Muhammad Ali: Woodward and Armstrong, The Brethren, 136-39.

  240 In an unsigned opinion: Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698 (1971) (per curiam). Thurgood Marshall, as a former lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (which represented Ali), took no part in Ali’s decision.

  241 “It’s what Justice Harlan”: Bingham and Wallace, Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, 249.

  241 “If the situation”: Radovich v. NFL, 352 U.S., 445, 456 (1957) (Harlan, J., dissenting).

  241 “ ‘public’ ”: Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 127 (1970), quoting another Harlan opinion, Moragne v. State Marine Lines, Inc., 398 U.S. 375, 403 (1970) (citations omitted).

  241 “We tried to shame”: Dan Levitt interview.

  242 “Mr. Justice Douglas”: 400 U.S. 1001, 91 S. Ct. 462 (1971).

  242 “professional athletes”: NYT, 1/19/71, 43.

  242 The [NBA’s] college player draft: Haywood v. Nat’l Basketball Ass’n, 401 U.S. 1204, 1205-6, 91 S. Ct. 672, 673-4 (1971) (citations omitted).

  242-43 On Douglas, see Murphy, Wild Bill.

  243 “Your dissent”: Memo, Reed to Douglas, 9/23/71, Douglas Papers, Box 1561, Folder 71-32(d) “Law Clerk.”

  243 Reed included: Memo, Reed to Burger, 9/27/71, Douglas Papers, Box 1522, Folder “O.T. 1971 Administrative Conf. Lists.”

  244 “at Conference”: Memo, Burger to Conference, 9/27/71, ibid. Conference is usually capitalized to refer to the nine justices collectively, but “conference” refers to the justices’ private meetings.

  244 October 4, 1971; The justices retreated: Memo, Burger to Conference, 9/24/71, ibid.

  244 They tried to delay: Blackmun Oral History, 4/24/95, 181.

  245 But decisions on 655: “Statistical Comparison of the Agenda for Conferences for the First Week of the Term for the Years Shown,” Douglas Papers, Box 1522, Folder “Administrative Conf. Lists.”

  245 The three: Douglas Papers, Box 1484, Folder “Administrative Docket Book #676-980.”

  245 A master of the cert process: Perry, Deciding to Decide, 67-69.

  245 “five give the four”: Straight v. Wainwright, 106 S. Ct. 2004, 2006 (1986) (Brennan, J., dissenting), quoted in Revesz and Harlan, “Nonmajority Rules and the Supreme Court,” 136 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1067, 1099 (1988).

  245 According to a private memo: Memo, Burger to Conference, 11/4/71, Douglas Papers, Box 1522, Folder “Administrative Memoranda by Court.”

  246 In the middle: Douglas Papers, Box 1561, Folder 71-32(d) “Law Clerk”; Law Clerk interview, 3/23/05.

  246 common personal practice: Perry, Deciding to Decide, 182; O’Brien, Storm Center , 252; Douglas, Go East Young Man, 452.

  246 Dissents from denial: Perry, Deciding to Decide, 170-74.

  246 Douglas asked: Docket Sheet, Brennan Papers, Box I:253, Folder 8.

  246 On October 7: Douglas Papers, Box 1561, Folder 71-32(d) “Law Clerk.”

  246 Today, the Court: Draft Dissent, 1 (citations omitted), Douglas Papers, Box 1561, Folder 71-32(d) “Law Clerk.”

  247 Douglas argued: Draft Dissent, 3-4.

  247 “While I joined”: Ibid., 4 n.3.

  247 Finally, the draft; The questions: Ibid., 4 (citations omitted).

  247 On the morning: Conference began that Friday at 9:15 a.m. so the justices could attend the funeral of former secretary of state, and two-year law clerk to Justice Louis Brandeis, Dean Acheson. Memo, Burger to Conference, 10/13/71, Thurgood Marshall Papers, Box 78, Fo
lder 8.

  248 Certiorari Granted: Court Journal, 10/19/71, 129, Thurgood Marshall Papers, Box 79, Folder 3.

  248 The New York Times: NYT, 10/20/71, 1, 57; WP, 10/20/71, A1, A9. 248 All three television networks: Vanderbilt University Television News Archive, 10/19/71, ABC, CBS, and NBC, record numbers 12941, 213380, and 454349.

  248 “Unless President Nixon”: CT, 10/21/71, F4.

  248 “Presidents come”: NYT, 10/22/71, 24.

  248-49 On Powell’s background: Jeffries, Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr., 139-141, 145-50, 174-76.

  249 “A Random”; “I realize”: 117 Cong. Rec. 44,800 (1971); “Supreme Court: Memo from Rehnquist,” Newsweek, 12/13/71, 32-37.

  249-50 On Rehnquist’s background: Snyder, “How the Conservatives Canonized Brown v. Board of Education,” 431-37.

  250 Assistant Solicitor General Philip Elman: WP, 1/18/57, A22.

  250 HIGHBROW COACH: Roth, Our Gang, 57.

  251 two years later: NYT, 6/28/73, 38.

  251 In 1970: Roth, Our Gang, 95.

  251 “surrender”: Ibid., 94.

  251 The New York Post: NYP, 4/28/71, 86.

  252 In Lisbon; “I’m sorry”: WP, 4/29/71, D1.

  252 Early the next morning: NYT, 4/30/71, 29; CT, 4/30/71, H1.

  252 “Welfare/Whereabouts”; 1. ROBERT SHORT: Telegram, 5/6/71, State Department Records, NARA, College Park, Maryland, R6 59, State Central Files, 1970-1973, Box 326.

  252 Actor Yul Brynner; “No thanks”: NYP, 5/8/71, 27; SI, 5/17/71, 66.

  252 Short claimed: WP, 5/23/71, C4.

  252-53 The promanagement Sporting News: TSN, 6/19/71, 33.

  253 The Mexico rumor: TSN, 7/24/71, 14.

  253 On May 1; Jimmie Angelopolous: Letter, Jimmie Angelopolous to Ted Williams, 8/7/71, TSN Archives, Curt Flood File; Jimmie Angelopolous interview.

  253 Flood ended up: BMS, 1/6/73.

  253 Flood once told; “Yes”: SFC, 3/19/79, 50.

  254 “It was kind”: Elliott Maddox interview.

  254 Rumors abounded: WP, 5/9/71, C3; WP, 6/27/71, E1.

  254 Flood knew: WP, 4/4/79, D4.

  254 “the situation”; “I know”: Marvin Miller interview.

  254 On July 29: SPD, 7/29/71, 10D; CT, 7/30/71, F3; CDN, 7/30/71, 36; TSN, 8/14/71, 36.

  254 On September 1: SPD, 9/1/71, 12A.

  254-55 A few weeks; At the time; “I’m sorry”: Letter from Moss to Flood, 10/18/71, Goldberg Papers, Box I-94, Folder 11.

  255 The only way: Marvin Miller interview.

  255-56 He wrote a letter; I hope; Flood asked: Letter from Flood to Goldberg, post-marked 12/21/71, Goldberg Papers, Box I-94, Folder 11.

  256 Goldberg rejoiced: Dan Levitt interview.

  256 “[I]t is the brief”: Winkelman, “Just a Brief Writer,” Litigation, Summer 2003, 52, quoting Thurgood Marshall, “The Federal Appeal,” in Charpentier, ed., Counsel on Appeal (1968), 139, 146.

  257 It is revolting: Holmes, “Path of the Law,” 10 Harv. L. Rev. 457, 469 (1897), quoted in Flood v. Kuhn, 443 F.2d 264, 268 n.7 (2d Cir. 1971).

  257 “moribund”: Flood Supreme Court Brief, 18.

  257 “precedential underpinnings”: Ibid., 19.

  257 “does not affect”: WP, 10/20/71, A9.

  257 “The reserve clause”: WP, 10/20/71, C1; NYT, 10/20/71, 57.

  258 The media speculated: TSN, 11/6/71, 40; TSN, 12/4/71, 32.

  258 Behind the scenes: Lou Hoynes interview.

  258 “Be prepared”: Bill Eskridge interview; Douglas Robinson interview.

  258 The young Willkie Farr: Bowie Kuhn interview.

  258 On October 25, 1971: NYT, 10/26/71, 45; TSN, 12/11/71, 48.

  258 Hoynes replaced; “Don’t embarrass”: Lou Hoynes interview; Robert Kheel interview; Helyar, Lords of the Realm, 110.

  258 O’Malley, however, wanted Kuhn: Bowie Kuhn interview; Kuhn, Hardball, 88.

  258 “I felt”; “I had very high”: Bowie Kuhn interview.

  259 considered the owners’ 133-page : Lou Hoynes interview.

  259 “Without reexamination”: Toolson, 346 U.S., 356-57, quoted in Owners’ Brief, 26.

  259 The owners’ brief: Owners’ Supreme Court Brief, 27-28.

  260 “mandatory subject”: Owners’ Supreme Court Brief, 49, quoting 381 U.S. at 710 (Goldberg, J., dissenting).

  260 Goldberg called David Feller: Letter from Goldberg to Feller, 12/31/71, Goldberg Papers, Box I-94, Folder 11, Letter from Feller to Goldberg, 1/5/72, Letter from Goldberg to Feller, 1/25/72, and Letter from Goldberg to Feller, 2/28/72, Goldberg Papers, Box I-94, Folder 12.

  260 After all the briefs: Jacobs and Winter, “Antitrust Principles and Collective Bargaining by Athletes,” 81 Yale L.J. 1 (1971-72).

  260 The Court asked: Letter from Seaver to Goldberg, 1/28/72, Goldberg Papers, Box I-94, Folder 12.

  260 Flood would be represented: Letter from Seaver to Goldberg, 2/1/72, ibid.

  260 Hoynes exulted; “one of the”: Lou Hoynes interview.

  261 Miller later admitted; “all the way”: Miller, A Whole Different Ball Game, 198.

  261 “Offering you help”: Letter from Topkis to Goldberg, 2/16/72, Goldberg Papers, Box I-94, Folder 12.

  261 “I believe”: Letter from Goldberg to Topkis, 2/22/72, ibid.

  261 In late February and March: Memo from Levitt to Goldberg, 2/28/72, Memo from Westen to Goldberg, 2/28/72, Memo from Levitt to Goldberg, 3/3/72, Memo from Levitt to Goldberg, 3/17/72, and Memo from Westen to Goldberg, 3/17/72, ibid.

  261 In mid-March; “sounded terrific”; “it would be”: Peter Westen interview.

  261-62 He took the train; There was a special chief justice: Lou Hoynes interview.

  262 An abrasive: Kalman, Abe Fortas, 380-82.

  262 In November 1970, Fortas: Memo from Fortas to Porter, 11/30/70, 1-3, Fortas Papers, Box 120, Folder 331.

  262 “this is one”; “Reliance upon stare decisis”: Ibid., 3.

  263 Gideon v. Wainwright : 372 U.S. 335 (1963).

  263 Fortas had briefed and argued: Lewis, Gideon’s Trumpet, 161-81.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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  264 During breakfast; Levitt thought: Dan Levitt interview.

  265 “truly skillful”: Jones v. Barnes, 463 U.S. 745, 762 (1983) (Brennan, J., dissenting).

  265 “you do have”: Bright, “The Power of the Spoken Word: In Defense of Oral Argument,” 72 Iowa L. Rev. 35, 36-37 (1986).

  265 Goldberg drove: Interview (anon.) by author.

  265 The white marble: NYT, 12/8/34, 1, 3.

  266 Jay Topkis: Jay Topkis interview.

  266 Marvin Miller: Marvin Miller interview.

  266 Miller was too busy: Marvin Miller interview.

  266 Muhammad Ali: NYT, 4/20/71, 24.

  266 Miller did not say: Marvin Miller interview.

  267 At a cost of $8,500: WES, 2/19/72, A-17.

  267 “So first”: Supreme Court transcript, 3 (Burger). All oral argument quotations are taken directly from the Court’s audiotape. Flood v. Kuhn Supreme Court Oral Argument Tape, 71-32, NARA, College Park, Maryland. I have cited only the written transcript, though not entirely complete and accurate, because it is more widely accessible and easier to cite than the audiotape. Flood v. Kuhn Supreme Court Oral Argument Transcript (Supreme Court transcript), Law Library, Library of Congress. Neither the audio nor the transcript identifies which justice is speaking. Professor Jerry Goldman of Northwestern University’s Oyez Project was extremely helpful in assisting me to identify the justice asking a particular question. In a few instances, Professor Goldman and I resorted to our best guesses.

  267 The justices fretted: Blackmun Oral History, 4/24/95, 184-85.

  267 “Mr. Goldberg”: Supreme Court transcript, 3 (Burger).

  267 “You have questions”: NYTM, 8/1/71, 25.

  268 Justice Black’s funeral: NYT, 9/29/71, 37.

  268 Justice Harlan’s funeral: Douglas Papers, Box 1522, Folder “Administrative Conference Lists.”

 
268 “Mr. Chief Justice”: Supreme Court transcript, 3 (Goldberg).

  268 “unpleasant voice”: Handwritten Notes, 3/20/72, Blackmun Papers, Box 145, Folder 2.

  268 He said Flood had signed: Supreme Court transcript, 4 (Goldberg).

  268 astonished Levitt and Westen: Dan Levitt interview; Peter Westen interview.

  268 “Everybody in that courtroom”: Dan Levitt interview.

  269 “overconfident”; they handed: Peter Westen interview.

  269 Goldberg began listing: Supreme Court transcript, 6.

  269 Levitt looked: Dan Levitt interview.

  269 He read the legal letters: Supreme Court transcript, 7-10 (Goldberg).

  269 “too much time”: Handwritten notes, 3/20/72, Blackmun Papers, Box 145, Folder 2.

  269 Stewart asked how much: Supreme Court transcript, 10-11.

  269 “an increase”: Ibid., 11 (Goldberg).

  270 “‘Why this high-paid ballplayer’ ”: Ibid., 11-12 (Goldberg).

  270 “[a]s a practical matter”: Ibid., 12 (Rehnquist).

  270 “That’s right”: Ibid. (Goldberg).

  270 The Supreme Court law clerks: Law Clerk interviews, 1/13/04, 3/23/05.

  271 “Mr. Justice, may I ask you”; “No”; “I hope you’re going”; “I will move”: Supreme Court transcript, 13-14 (Brennan and Goldberg).

  271 The image in Hoynes’s: Lou Hoynes interview.

  271 Neither Levitt nor Westen: Dan Levitt interview; Peter Westen interview.

  271-72 Brennan then asked; “They would have”; “both dealt”; “the Court doesn’t”; Goldberg responded: Supreme Court transcript, 14 (Brennan and Goldberg).

  272 White asked; White tried: Supreme Court transcript, 16.

  272 “Has this man”; “Pardon”; “Has the petitioner”; “Yes”; “Is the case moot”: Supreme Court transcript, 19 (Douglas and Goldberg).

  272-73 William Radovich; “protect the victims”: Radovich, 352 U.S., 448, 454. On Radovich, see also Radovich v. NFL, 230 F.2d 620 (9th Cir. 1956); CT, 7/6/49, C2.

  273 “I won’t trade him”: Flood Supreme Court Reply Brief, 17, quoting, NYT, 2/18/72, 29.

  273 He had spoken: Letter from Gerst to Goldberg, 2/25/72, and Letter from Goldberg to Gerst, 2/28/72, Goldberg Papers, Box I-94, Folder 12.

  273 “Quite possibly”: Letter from Topkis to Goldberg, 2/18/72, ibid.