Legal News

God Bless Compromise: Yankees, Fan, Settle Suit Over Song

By Ashby Jones

A little housekeeping here: In April, we wrote about a man at a Yankee game last year who was ejected from the (old) stadium for trying to move around during the playing of “God Bless America” during the 7th-inning stretch.

The man, annoyed at his ejection, took the matter to the courts. Along with a little help from the New York Civil Liberties Union, he sued the Yankees, two cops, and Ray Kelly, the NYPD’s commissioner. (Click here for the lawsuit.)

Well — and God Bless Compromise — the suit was settled earlier this week. Click here for the AP story. The city did not admit liability in the settlement, but it will pay the Queens resident $10,001 and will pay $12,000 in legal fees to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

For its part, the Yankees will pay nothing but said in settlement papers that fans at the team’s new stadium are allowed to move freely during the song and there are no plans to change that. “Policy remains as it always has been: Fans are free to move about during the playing of ‘God Bless America,’” said Alice McGillion, spokeswoman for the Yankees.

LBers, what do you think about the Yankees playing the song at all? Frankly, we’re torn. On the one hand, the playing of the Star Spangled Banner prior to the game seems ample patriotic reverence for one three-hour sporting event. (Only one other stadium, Dodger Stadium, continues the tradition of playing the song during the seventh inning; most others, which embraced the ritual after 9/11, have stopped.) On the other hand, it’s not exactly all that painful to sit through Kate Smith’s all-business version of the song — the one that’s most commonly played at Yankee games.) Thoughts?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 08, 2009 (boomark / email).