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Bernie Sanders Slams ‘Baseball Oligarchs’ In MLB Deal

By  |  March 14, 2022

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) slammed Major League Baseball team owners as “baseball oligarchs” on Thursday after they took nearly 100 days to reach an agreement with the players union. 

“We are dealing with an organization controlled by a number of billionaires who collectively are worth over $100 billion,” he said in a statement after the lockout ended. “It should be clear to all that these baseball oligarchs have shown that they are far more concerned about increasing their wealth and profits than in strengthening our national pastime.”

In his statement, the former presidential hopeful and progressive icon also blamed owners for negotiating “in bad faith for more than 100 days in a blatant attempt to break the players’ union.”

Critics of senator Sanders’ statement, however, have pointed out that the Senate could have prevented the lockout in the first place by passing a bill that Sanders’ colleagues declined even to bring up for a vote. The bill has remained buried in the Senate for more than a year.

The antitrust exemption allows baseball to control where its teams play. If the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays cannot get new ballparks and decide to move, MLB alone makes the call, reported the LA Times. The NFL does not have an antitrust exemption, which factored into St. Louis winning $790 million after the Rams’ move to Los Angeles.

Since 1950, according to Indiana University professor Nathaniel Grow, Congress has held more than 60 hearings to debate the MLB antitrust exemption, never repealing it. In 2019, when Sanders and other members of Congress confronted MLB over the plan to eliminate minor league teams, Sanders told me “many, many members of the House and the Senate … are prepared to take a hard look” at the antitrust exemption.

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Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Ruling in Consumer Bureau Battle Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Ruling in CFPB Battle

Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Ruling in Consumer Bureau Battle

By  |  April 3, 2025

A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily put on hold a lower court ruling that had delivered a significant victory to government employees and consumer advocates opposing President Donald Trump’s efforts to curtail the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). According to Reuters, the decision maintains a temporary pause while the court considers an emergency request from the Justice Department to overturn the previous ruling entirely.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia stopped short of reversing any provisions set forth by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in her March 28 ruling. Per Reuters, her decision had ordered the CFPB to reinstate dismissed employees, restore canceled contracts, and continue performing its legally mandated duties. However, the appellate judges left in place interim measures preventing the administration from taking further action against agency staff or halting essential operations.

Despite the temporary stay, the three-judge panel emphasized that the decision should not be interpreted as an indication of their final ruling. “The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion,” the order stated, according to Reuters.

Related: CFPB Allows Some Operations to Resume Amid Legal Challenge

The Justice Department formally notified the court on Saturday of its intent to challenge Judge Berman Jackson’s order, seeking to overturn her directive that prevented the administration from erasing agency data, terminating employees, or discontinuing active contracts. The Trump administration’s moves against the CFPB began in February when the president dismissed the agency’s director and granted officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency extensive access to sensitive CFPB data systems. The actions resulted in widespread layoffs, contract cancellations, and office closures, prompting consumer protection groups and affected workers to file a lawsuit denouncing the changes as unlawful.

According to Reuters, agency leadership has since attempted to walk back some of these measures, a move Judge Berman Jackson described as likely “a charade for the court’s benefit.” While the appeals court’s temporary stay keeps aspects of the lower court’s ruling in place for now, the broader legal battle over the CFPB’s future remains unresolved.

Source: Reuters