Oregon and Sports Law (original) (raw)

2022, Entertainment and Sports Lawyer

The purpose of the article is to explore people, cases, and laws that have a relationship between the state of Oregon and the study of sports law, including pedagogical insights to incorporate Oregon-related examples into the classroom. Oregon has had an impact on American culture through the courts and elsewhere particularly regarding sport. This includes exploration of the Supreme Court decisions including high school drug-testing case of Vernonia Sch. Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U.S. 646 (1995) and the case of Casey Martin in PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin, 532 U.S. 661 (2001). Indeed, the life and impact of University of Oregon runner Steve Prefontaine had a direct impact on the enactment of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. The article addresses the controversy surrounding Nike’s “Oregon Project,” and, of course, the Olympic case involving figure skater Tony Harding. Further, Oregon was one of four states exempt from the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), the law that effectively banned sports betting in all but those four states. The article then provides other Oregon-based cases and “controversies” related to a wide-variety of sports law subjects including Title IX issues sports tort examples including Oregon decisions related to foul ball cases. Pedagogically, Oregon provides nice examples for the instructor to use no matter where they teach. This includes several NCAA-related circumstances related to its “no-agent rule,” unique coaching clauses, certification standards for coaches, and whether competitive cheer should (or could someday) become an NCAA-sponsored sport. Oregon offers statutes related to sports bribery, sports officials and sports agents, among others. Several examples of high school sport cases are included as is the state’s sport-related concussion laws. Finally, it is worth noting that the Oregon-based band The Slants, whose legal challenge to obtain their federal trademark worked its way to the Supreme Court decision in 2017, had a direct impact on the contemporaneous legal challenge of the legitimacy of-albeit controversial-Washington Redskins’ team name at the federal level under the Lanham Act.