Critique of the Veil of Fair Representation

In what has become known as the “Spencer Haywood case,” the player of that name challenged then-existing bylaws of the National Basketball Association (“NBA”) that barred anyone from playing in the NBA until four years after he, or his high school class, graduated from high school. A federal trial judge, and then Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, held that Mr. Haywood was entitled to a “preliminary injunction,” permitting him to play for an NBA team, because he raised a significant question whether the NBA’s four years after high school rule violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. Mr. Haywood ultimately won on the merits, as a federal district court held that the NBA’s age-related restrictions constituted an illegal “group boycott” forbidden by the Sherman Antitrust Act. The decision opened the door not only to Mr. Haywood, but to scores of basketball players who joined NBA teams after fewer than four years of college play, and even to players who came to the NBA immediately from high school