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Court grants NFL permanent stay by the Sports Network
On April 29, the court granted a temporary stay of a decision made four days earlier by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Richard Nelson. She granted the players’ request for an injunction to the lockout, then denied the league’s request for a stay.
But Monday’s ruling means the lockout will be in effect until the league’s appeal of Nelson’s decision begins on June 3, when the Eighth Circuit will hear oral arguments.
That date was set as the Eighth Circuit granted the NFL’s request for an expedited appeal, and the court wrote in Monday’s decision that the schedule should “minimize harm to the Players during the off-season and allow the case to be resolved well before the scheduled beginning of the 2011 season.”
Still, the court’s decision leaves the labor situation mostly as it was when the lockout was instituted March 12. In April, Nelson ordered the sides to go through a second round of mediation, and they were scheduled to meet again Monday.
“The NFL’s request for a stay of the lockout that was granted today means no football,” said a statement from the players. “The players are in mediation and are working to try to save the 2011 season.”
The league said in a statement that it is time to focus on “reaching a comprehensive agreement.”
“This litigation has taken the parties away from the negotiating table where these issues should be resolved,” the statement said. “We remain confident that the appellate court will determine that this is a labor dispute that should be governed by federal labor law. But the league and players, without further delay, should control their own destiny and decide the future of the NFL together through negotiation.”
Two of the three judges in Monday’s ruling, Steven M. Colloton and Duane Benton, issued the majority decision. Kermit E. Bye again issued a dissenting opinion, as he did when the court ruled for a temporary stay last month.
All the decisions involved — both Nelson’s and the Eighth Circuit’s — have considered the balance between how the lockout harms the players and how the lack of one harms the NFL.
Nelson granted the injunction because the players argued the lockout was causing irreparable harm to their careers. She wrote they “made a strong showing that allowing the league to continue their ‘lockout’ is presently inflicting, and will continue to inflict irreparable harm upon them, particularly when weighed against the lack of any real injury that would be imposed on the NFL by issuing the preliminary injunction.”
The Eighth Circuit recognized that argument. Its decision said one side will “suffer some degree of irreparable harm no matter how this court resolves the motion.”
However, Colloton and Benton argued that the harm the players would suffer with the lockout in place did not heavily outweigh the harm caused to the NFL by the injunction while the appeal is heard. They argued Nelson “gave little or no weight” to the harm caused to the NFL.
The league argues that the injunction takes away negotiating power in the ongoing labor dispute — in other words, the lockout gives it essential leverage.
Bye, however, dissented for several reasons, among them that the NFL did not persuade him that it will suffer irreparable harm while the appeal of Nelson’s ruling is decided. He also wrote that whatever harm the NFL might suffer “stands in stark contrast to the irreparable harm suffered by the Players.”
The players have maintained that the lockout creates an inability to participate in workouts, learn team playbooks, and have access to medical treatments, among other normal offseason activities.
They also argue it increases the chances the 2011 will be canceled or shortened, which would prevent them from taking advantage of small career windows.
The lockout was instituted after discussions about a new collective bargaining agreement broke down in March. The players dissolved their union and filed the injunction request to lift the lockout, as well as an antitrust lawsuit against the league.
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