Legal News

Investigators can use baseball players' drug tests, 9th Circuit rules

By Jason Siegel

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals approved the use of the names and urine samples of about 100 professional baseball players that tested positive for steroids in 2003, the San Jose Mercury News reported last week.

This would provide more names that the Mitchell Report, which publicly identified 85 players.

The appeals court rejected arguments by the players' union that seizing the records was a violation of their medical privacy rights and protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

The court upheld their 2006 rulings, which had overturned San Francisco, Los Angeles and Nevada federal courts finding that the governmental searches were illegal. But it said that the appeal to the Los Angeles case was filed too late, which could be a challenge to getting the information seized through that specific case, finds the Mercury News.

In this week's National Law Journal, Stroock & Stroock partner Joel Cohen questions whether the public outing of players via the Mitchell report is fair and responsible. While the Mitchell Report may seem to continue the prejudicial behavior of publicly naming communists and witches, the report would have appeared less credible and received less attention if players hadn't been named, finds Cohen. 

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).