A Steptoe blog about civil litigation in the Southern District of New York
In a short order today, the Second Circuit denied the NFL Players Association and Tom Brady’s petition for a panel rehearing or rehearing en banc in the DeflateGate case. The decision leaves intact Brady’s four game suspension for his role in deflating footballs used during the 2015 AFC Championship Game.
Our coverage of the original…
The NFL filed its reply brief in the DeflateGate appeal yesterday. As we previously reported, Tom Brady’s opposition brief focused on the fact that the NFL’s written policies for players state that first-time equipment violations will result in fines, which, he argued, would give no notice that a suspension was possible. The NFL’s reply brief counters that Tom Brady has already conceded the policy is inapplicable:
Continue Reading NFL DeflateGate Reply: Policy of “Fines” for Equipment Violations Is Not Applicable to Footballs and Doesn’t Foreclose Suspensions
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the NFL Player’s Association filed their appeal brief yesterday with the Second Circuit, responding to the initial brief filed by the NFL. The brief from Brady and the Player’s Association argues that there was a bargained-for policy for first-time equipment violations to result only in fines, and that Judge Berman correctly ruled that imposing a four-game suspension on Tom Brady violated that policy and failed to give Brady prior notice of the possibility of a suspension:
Continue Reading Tom Brady’s Deflategate Appeal Brief Focuses on Bargained-For Policy that First-Time Equipment Violations Would Result Only in Fines
In a decision yesterday, Judge Furman declined to certify an interlocutory appeal on the question of whether an individual employee can force his former employer to waive privilege so the employee can assert an advice-of-counsel defense. Judge Furman had previously found that the employer cannot be forced to waive the privilege, and noted that an…
The NFL yesterday filed its opening brief in the “Deflategate” appeal. The introduction claims that Judge Berman did not give Commissioner Goodell appropriate deference when he reversed Tom Brady’s four-game suspension:
[T]his should not have been a close case. The Commissioner exercised the precise authority that the CBA grants him when considering allegations of
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