Flood V. Kuhn - Before The Supreme Court

Before The Supreme Court

The court granted certiorari later that year. Former justice Arthur Goldberg returned to argue Flood's case before some of his former colleagues. Kuhn, a onetime star litigator, considered arguing the case himself, but uiltimately deferred to Paul Porter and Louis Hoynes. At oral arguments on March 20, 1972, Goldberg reiterated Flood's arguments about the harm done to players by the reserve system. Baseball's lawyers responded to them, but primarily invoked the game's place in American culture and the greater good done it by the reserve system.

Justice Lewis Powell recused himself from the case because he owned stock in Anheuser-Busch, which owned the Cardinals.