WASHINGTON — Like most folks, I cheered the Supreme Court decision giving Casey Martin the right to use a golf cart to ease the burden on his diseased leg while pursuing his dreams on the professional tour. But after reading the dissent by Justice Antonin Scalia on the 7-2 decision, I am scared to death of the precedent that may have been set.
It would have been a lot better if the PGA Tour had just been a bit flexible and given Martin the ride he asked for. As Scalia noted twice in his dissent, the majority opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens, an avid golfer, could come back to bite the sport I really cherish — baseball.
The essence of the Stevens opinion is that the Americans With Disabilities Act, which bars discrimination in employment and public accommodations against people with handicaps, overrides the PGA Tour rule forbidding golf carts in its major professional tournaments. To reach this conclusion, Stevens and the majority had to agree that the PGA Tour was wrong in arguing that letting Martin ride while his competitors walked the course would "fundamentally alter the nature" of the contest.
Golf, the learned justices said, is about putting the ball in the hole, not about how one traverses the terrain.
Fair enough, I thought. And then I read the Scalia dissent. His first baseball reference comes in his objection to the majority’s finding that the golfers, who are clearly not employees of the PGA Tour, can be regarded as its "customers," bringing them under the jurisdiction of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
"The professional golfers on the Tour are no more ‘enjoying’ … the entertainment that the Tour provides, or the facilities of the golf courses on which it is held, than professional baseball players ‘enjoy’ the baseball games in which they play or the facilities of Yankee Stadium," Scalia wrote. "To be sure, professional ballplayers participate in the games, and use the ballfields, but no one in his right mind would think that they are customers of the American League."
And then came the Scalia passage that really chilled my blood. He challenged the part of the majority opinion that held that the anti-cart rule was not necessary to preserve the "essential" character of the game.
Scalia observed: "Nowhere is it writ that PGA Tour golf must be classic ‘essential’ golf. Why cannot the PGA Tour, if it wishes, promote a new game, with distinctive rules (much as the American League promotes a game of baseball in which the pitcher’s turn at the plate can be taken by a ‘designated hitter’)?"
I have never had the opportunity to discuss the designated hitter rule — or anything else — with Justice Scalia. But the rule is an abomination. If my friend Lance Morgan had not already taken possession, I would get a license plate reading, "NO DH."
The DH rule is responsible for most of the ills of this nation, including the energy shortage. American League games last so bloody long, the stadium lights are burning up wattage long after midnight.
Now, it is just a matter of time before some smart lawyer seizes on the Martin ruling to force the National League to adopt the disastrous DH rule. The plaintiff will be some popular slugger who has reached his 40th birthday. His hand-eye coordination in the batter’s box is still superb. He knows the opposing pitchers’ every trick. But his legs will no longer let him field his position, so he wants to DH. And, his lawyer will contend, the National League rule against the DH discriminates against our aged slugger by denying him access to the public accommodation of half the ballparks in the land.
Clearly, under the Martin precedent, the National League would not be able to maintain that playing defense as well as offense is "essential" to the game of baseball. After all, the American League sanctions the DH, who stays in the dugout when his team takes the field.
The only way to avoid this ugly fate would be a later ruling by the Stevens Seven, distinguishing Casey Martin’s undeniably severe nerve disease from the aches and pains most ballplayers have acquired by the time they hit the middle-30s. I can see a platoon of over-the-hill sluggers practicing their limps just to qualify for relief from the Supreme Court.
We would never have faced this awful prospect of the complete desecration of the national game, if the PGA Tour had just settled the case years ago and given Casey Martin his cart. Or if Justice Stevens loved baseball as much as he loves golf.
David Broder can be reached at The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071-9200.
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