Baseball is America's national pastime. So is litigation. In recent years, the two have converged in the most obnoxious way, with fans suing each other for ownership of home run balls.

On Monday, the Florida Marlins received a subpoena for video footage from Justin Kimball, a 25-year-old fan who attended the team's June 9th game. According to Justin, on that day he caught Ken Griffey Jr.'s monumental 600th career home run in his wool cap, but the ball was ripped away from him by a fan identified only as "Joe." Joe, however, contends that he caught the ball in his glove.

Last Wednesday, Justin filed a motion in Miami-Dade court, seeking a temporary restraining order prohibiting Joe from selling the disputed baseball. Although Justin's motion was denied, he plans to continue litigating.

This is not the first time that grown men have fought over a baseball. In December 2002, a California judge in Popov v. Hayashi (PDF) ordered two men, each of whom claimed to own Barry Bonds's historic 73rd home run ball, to equally split the proceeds. In that case, Alex Popov, owner of a Berkeley, CA health food restaurant, brought suit against Patrick Hayashi, a software engineer from Sacramento. Popov alleged that he owned Bonds's baseball because he was the first to get his glove on the ball, and that Hayashi tore the ball from his glove during the ensuing melee. Hayashi argued that he was the first to have actual possession.

Read more about the law of history-making baseballs, after the jump.

Have you been searching for more-affordable fantasy sports games? If so, thanks to the Supreme Court's hands-off approach to the conflict between player publicity rights and First Amendment rights, unlicensed parties may now have a better chance to legally enter the fantasy sports gaming market.

Since the creation of fantasy sports games in the early 1980s, one of the main barriers to entry has involved purchasing the right to use players' names and statistics. On Tuesday, however, the Supreme Court denied Major League Baseball's petition for certiorari in C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. (previously blogged about here). As a result of the cert denial, fantasy sports websites are now more likely allowed to use baseball players' names and statistics without obtaining any type of license.

Discussion resumes below the fold.

* House Democrats oppose Senate spy bill's telecom immunity. [Washington Post]

* Justice Scalia approves of "so-called torture" under some circumstances. [MSNBC]

* Just a few months later, Senate committee gets around to admonishing Sen. Craig. [CNN]

* Clemens and McNamee go head to head before Congress. [ESPN]

* City's scantily clad cowboy sues candy-coated counterpart. [WSJ Law Blog]

Taken as a group, Supreme Court clerks can claim pretty much every honor under the sun. At One First Street, Rhodes and Marshall scholars are commonplace, law review editors-in-chief are a dime a dozen, and law school valedictorians abound.

But how many SCOTUS clerks have their own IMDb entry? Meet Isaac Lidsky (Harvard 2004 / Ambro), an attorney at the Department of Justice (Civil Appellate), who was selected last week by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as her law clerk for October Term 2008. He founded the non-profit Hope for Vision, and his bio there reads:

[Isaac] is an honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Thomas Ambro of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before law school, Isaac founded Poindexter Systems, a now thriving internet advertising technology company in Manhattan. Isaac has been involved in raising awareness and funding for vision research for many years. He has organized several fundraising events, has appeared in the national media to promote awareness of the cause, has testified about the need for scientific funding before Congressional bodies on numerous occasions, and has served as a mentor to younger individuals afflicted with eye diseases. He has retinitis pigmentosa.

From a tipster:

I wonder if he is the first blind law clerk on the Supreme Court. I also wonder whether he's the first clerk to have thrown out the first pitch at an MLB game.

[Before law school,] Isaac had a prior life as a child actor. His most notable role, I believe, was as Barton "Weasel" Wyzell (the new Screech) on Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

Awesome. Fay Diplomas and Sears Prizes pale in comparison next to the experience of having acted opposite Dennis Haskins (aka "Mr. Belding").

Also hired as a Supreme Court clerk, but for October Term 2009: Bessie Dewar (Yale 2006 / W. Fletcher / L. Pollak (E.D. Pa.)). She's been described to us as "brilliant," "wonderfully charismatic," and "one of nicest, most smiling people to grace the halls of the Yale Law School."

The current tally of OT 2008 and OT 2009 SCOTUS clerks, with Isaac Lidsky and Bessie Dewar added, appears after the jump.

[Ed. note: As you may recall, last month we solicited applications for the position of ATL's sports columnist. We thank the many fine applicants who threw their hats into the ring.

Today we're pleased to introduce you to this site's new sportswriter: Marc Edelman, a sports lawyer and law professor. You can reach him directly by email (click here). And now, without further ado, we turn the floor over to Professor Edelman.]

As a young boy, I remember sitting with my father watching Super Bowl XXI. In that game, New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms completed 22-of-25 passes for 268 yards, leading my hometown G-Men to a 39-20 victory over John Elway’s Denver Broncos. At that moment, I knew that I would one day work in sports.

Flash forward 21 years. The Giants are back in the Super Bowl. Their then-famous center Bart Oates is now a practicing attorney, and I recently was named as a professor of sports law at New York Law School, Seton Hall University, and Manhattanville College. I am also the new sports columnist at Above the Law.

In the coming weeks, my column Sports and the Law will focus on issues involving the legal aspects of sports, including moral issues, labor policy, and antitrust policy (or lack thereof). This column will also discuss how lawyers can find jobs in the sports field.

Read the first column, after the jump.

Thanks to the many readers who have alerted us to the lawsuit that Roger Clemens just filed against his ex-trainer. From the AP:

Roger Clemens beat Brian McNamee to court, filing a defamation suit against the former trainer who claimed to have injected him with performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens filed the suit Sunday night in Harris County District Court in Texas, listing 15 alleged statements McNamee made to the baseball drug investigator George Mitchell. Clemens claimed the statements were "untrue and defamatory."

"According to McNamee, he originally made his allegations to federal authorities after being threatened with criminal prosecution if he didn't implicate Clemens," according to the 14-page petition, obtained early Monday by The Associated Press.

You can review the petition here (PDF). One tipster writes:

Some miscellaneous notes: it will be interesting to see if Clemens is considered a "public figure." Further, something I didn't know about, even as a life-long New Yorker - Clemens was initially drafted by the New York Mets. Intriguing.

We'd think that Clemens would definitely qualify as a public figure. But given our line of work, we like to think of everyone as a public figure. In the internet age, we are all public figures now.

P.S. Thanks to the many readers who applied to serve as ATL's sports columnist. We are reviewing the many submissions and will select a columnist by the end of this week.

Clemens files defamation lawsuit against ex-trainer McNamee [AP]
Clemens v. McNamee: Complaint (PDF) [ESPN]

* Bush administration seeks greater power over promotions of military lawyers. [Boston Globe via How Appealing]

* Saudi king pardons rape victim who had been sentenced to 200 lashes (for being alone with a man at the time of the attack). [AP via New York Times]

* Limited effects of recent SCOTUS sentencing decision? [Chicago Tribune]

* CNN's guide to Mitchell report players. [CNN]

* Law Blog's guide to Sen. George Mitchell (including a funny story of a minor faux pas). [WSJ Law Blog]

* Poll suggests support for individual rights reading of Second Amendment. [CNN]

* Comcast v. NFL Network dispute produces another lawsuit. [Sportsline]

A major legal story that's related to sports? Oh noes! We are completely ignorant.

But we've collected some links about former Senator George Mitchell's report on steroid use in major legal baseball. Feel free to discuss in the comments.

P.S. Would any of you be interested in writing a column for ATL on sports and the law? If so, please email us (subject line: "Sports Column"), and tell us a bit about yourself, your vision for such a column, possible topics, etc.

In 2008, we're going to be making some changes to ATL -- e.g., a site redesign, new servers, etc. -- and bringing aboard some outside columnists is part of that plan. So feel free to send column ideas our way.

Thanks, bro. (Talking like a jock -- it's really not that hard.)

Steroid Report Implicates Top Players [New York Times]
Clemens, Tejada named in Report [Sports Illustrated / SI.com]
Law Blog Lawyer Of the Day: DLA’s George Mitchell [WSJ Law Blog]