Armstrong tries again

It only took a day from getting slapped down by a federal district judge to refile his lawsuit against USADA and its CEO, again with claims for tortious interference, common law due process, and Fifth Amendment Due Process. The new pleading is 25 pages and 82 numbered paragraphs--truly short and plain. This suggests that the original complaint was 55 pages and about 180 paragraphs of snark and vitriol.

I want to break down the Fifth Amendment claim because I do not believe it can succeed. I have been writing about state (and federal) action for the past few days, so this story links well to my current work. Here goes.

First, to the extent Armstrong is seeking money damages for the Fifth Amendment violations, this is a Bivens action. But the Supreme Court has in the past decade made clear that neither a private entity nor its employee can be subject to Bivens liability, at least where state remedies are available (as there are here--Armstrong is pursuing them in the same case). Now both Malesko and Minneci were Eighth Amendment claims involving privatized prisons, so maybe this is a different circumstance. But there is a good argument that Bivens now runs only against government officers and joint private-federal participation does not create constitutional liability against private persons as it does under § 1983.

Second, even if a Bivens action is possible, I doubt it works here. The complaint alleges four sets of facts aimed at showing joint private-federal participation; most of them do not work. I cannot make this case fit into any of the recognized tests for action under color of law.

    1) Congress was "instrumental" in creating USADA and USADA receives 2/3 of its funding from Congress. Nope. Receipt of government funds, even in large amounts, does not make a private entity a government actor. Think of how much money private hospitals get from Medicare and Medicaid.

    2) "Defendants exercise powers traditionally exclusively reserved to the State." Nope. Regulating sports is not a traditional government function, nor one it alone has historically done.

    3) USADA conducted its investigation of Armstrong in conjunction with several federal agencies, including DOJ, the FBI, and the FDA. The USADA's case is based on the evidence jointly gathered. This one is closer, because this type of joint operation can be sufficient to make a private actor public. The problem for Armstrong is that the connection must be between the government and the challenged conduct. Armstrong does not challenge the joint investigation itself; he is challenging USADA instituting internal procedures against him for doping. But the federal government plays no role in those procedures or in the establishment of the rules that USADA follows. That the adjuducation relies on government-gathered evidence is not sufficient.

    4) USADA has been delegated authority to regulate and monitor drug-testing, exercising an express power grant of Congress and carrying out federal treaty obligations. Again, closer, but I am not convinced. Mere delegation of power or authorization to act in some area, even to the point of having exclusive power, is not sufficient. Nor is the simple fact that the private entity is doing something the has public import. That USADA is ensuring that the U.S. complies with treaty obligation point is a nice fact, but I do not believe it is enough.

I leave discussion of the tort, contract, and arbitrability issues to smarter hands. In the meantime, is there something else I am missing?

Ferrum Adds Strong Running Back To Arsenal

Ferrum will have a versatile running back in camp soon. Kyle Chambers, from Watauga High School has agreed to play football with the Panthers. Please see the story below from the Watauga Democrat

Ferrum Secures New Running Back

Lance Armstrong gets Twiqbaled

Let me add my proceduralist take to Mike's comments on Lance Armstrong's lawsuit and its sua sponte dismissal.

The lawsuit claimed tortious interference with contract and violation of Fifth Amendment due process. The complaint was long (80 pages, 261 paragraphs) and rhetorically loaded, deriding USADA's "kangaroo court" and its belief that it is "above the United States Constitution, above the law, above court review, free from supervision from any person or organization, and even above its own rules." And those are the mild parts.

In  the complaint, Judge Sparks said it is "far from short" and not "plain," buried in "excessive" rhetoric; the court was "not inclined to indulge Armstrong's desire for publicity, self-aggrandizement, or vilification of Defendants." He noted that "[c]ontrary to Armstrong's apparent belief, pleadings filed in the United States District Courts are not press releases, internet blogs, or pieces of investigativej ournalism. All parties, and their lawyers, are expected to comply with the rules of this Court, and face potential sanctions if they do not." A complaint, the court said, requires facts, not a "lengthy and bitter polemic against the named defendants."

This is an absolutely extraordinary order. I have written before about pleading as press release (Elizabeth Thornburg coined the term). The district court in the Duke lacrosse lawsuits took the plaintiffs to task for ther overly long and overly overheated complaints, but that was in the course of ruling on 12(b)(6) motions and was done largely in passing and as a reminder to the lawyers going forward. I have never seen a court preemptively and unilaterally reject a complaint for overdoing the rhetoric. Especially since, while Armstrong unquestionably was speaking to the sports media and the world, I am not sure the rhetoric here is so much more excessive than in other complaints.

Perhaps this is judicial order as press release. Judge Sparks knows the world is watching this lawsuit and he is proactively seizing control over the case and making clear that they litigate for the court, not for the press.

[Update: It turns out, Judge Sparks is known as something of a loose cannon, doing some unusual/borderline things when it comes to controlling what he sees as attorney misbehavior. (H/T: Bryan Camp of Texas Tech Law)]

Lance Armstrong's (Quixotic?) attempt to take on the US Anti Doping Agency

Lance Armstrong came out swinging today with a historic lawsuit against the USADA, which has charged him with doping. The suit was dismissed (without prejudice) by a federal judge within hours as an attempt to stir popular opinion. Expect Armstrong to refile the lawsuit soon.

Here's my take for Sports Illustrated on Armstrong's chances and strategy.

Two reads from Grantland

1) Our own Gabe Feldman breaks down the lawsuits brought by the Saints players challenging their suspensions for the bounty program.

2) Louisa Thomas has lovely essay on Title IX and women's tennis in the wake of the just-completed Wimbledon and the upcoming Olympics (coincidentally enough, in London).

One quick comment on Thomas's discussion of the failure of women's professional leagues.
But we somewhat have to think of this as the simple accident of history and timing. Women's professional leagues are trying to catch on at a time when professional sports are big, relatively successful businesses in which the athletes make a living as athletes. This creates an expectation that any women's league must make money right away to be sustainable. But most professional men's leagues were not financially successful at all in their early years; they certainly were not the  monstrous transnational businesses that the NFL, NBA, or MLB are. It was not that long ago (relatively speaking) that many professional athletes (including in the "big four" sports) worked "real" jobs in the off-season to pay the bills and that the leagues and individual teams were barely squeaking by (think about the first decade of the NBA). But no one is asking whether Women's Professional Soccer is as financially successful as the NBA was in its fifth season; everyone is asking whether WPS is as financially successful as the NFL--and when it's not, the league inevitably must fold.

Ferrum College- An Amazing Transformation

Soon the Ferrum College Football Report will begin covering it's fifth season of Ferrum football. Over this short period of time, the football program has experienced two significant changes.
1. The retirement of Ferrun's fifth head coach Dave Davis, followed by the hiring of the sixth head coach David Harper.
2.  The construction of and grand opening of the Hank Norton Center.

While the center is not just designed to serve football, this writer expects that the facility, will in most peoples minds, be considered a football first facility. I doubt that this is a particularly rash assumption, based on who it is named in honor of.

These developments are just two of many amazing stories that have recently come from the 700 acre campus in western Franklin County. I know that I cannot detail every one of them, but I will try to highlight just a few:

Development of Men's Lacrosse program
Development of Women's Swimming program
Construction of four new dormitories
Introduction of Papa John's Pizza on campus....(if you don't think it's a big deal, you should have been there between 1978 and 1982. It was a huge deal when a Pizza Hut opened in Rocky Mount.)
Starbucks on Campus
Subway Restaurant on Campus
Renovations to many of the academic and administrative buildings
Renovations and expansion of the Blue Ridge Farm Museum
Tri Area Health Center
Partnership with the YMCA to expand the college fitness center and in the process make it a YMCA that the public can use.
Renovations and upgrades to Swartz Gymnasium
Reintroduction of Wrestling as the 17th intercollegiate sport

To put it simply, these are amazing times for Ferrum College. The developments listed above are just some of the important changes that have taken place at Ferrum. The college is thriving, and the phenomenal progressive ride is being steered by Dr. Jennifer Braaten. Described as a visionary in a recent article in the Franklin News Post, Dr. Braaten took the reigns in 2002, and over the last 10 years has shown steadfast commitment toward making Ferrum a top notch 21st century college.
It is truly astonishing to see the changes that have taken place on the campus, and while I am sure that Dr. Braaten would do all she could to give credit to Alumni, Friends of the College, the Board of Trustees, and the colleges devoted faculty and staff, and while all of these have been huge contributors to the excellent work that has been done, make no mistake that, in my opinion, the credit goes to Dr Braaten.
As Ferrum's 100th anniversiary approaches, I anticipate the renaissance that Ferrum has seen on campus to continue, and I look for Dr. Braaten to stay the course and come up with more major initiatives before riding off into the sunset.

Spanyol, Juara Euro 2012 Yang Pantas

Akhirnya Piala Eropa 2012 memunculkan nama Spanyol sebagai juaranya.
Lebih istimewa lagi karena ini adalah untuk kali pertama sebuah tim mampu mempertahankan gelar Piala Eropa.
Makin istimewa lagi karena dalam skala dunia, Spanyol adalah satu-satunya team yang mampu membuat hattrick juara di tiga turnamen besar secara berurutan.
Tercatat Spanyol menjuarai Piala Eropa 2008, Piala Dunia 2010 dan Piala Eropa 2012.

Mungkin semua orang tidak akan menyangsikan kepantasan Spanyol untuk menyandang gelar juara.
Satu hal yang mungkin masih jadi pertanyaan orang-orang adalah mengapa Italia yang begitu perkasa mengimbangi Spanyol di laga fase grup C dan menyingkirkan favorit juara Jerman bisa tampil begitu lemah dan kalah dengan skor telak 4-0.

Dalam wawancara seusai pertandingan, pelatih Italia Cesare Prandelli mengemukakan faktor kelelahan sebagai alasan utama kekalahan Italia.
Mengingat Spanyol punya waktu istirahat lebih sehari, maka bisa saja alasan ini dijadikan pembenaran.
Tapi perlu dicatat pula bahwa Spanyol melalui babak semifinal lewat drama adu penalti yang melelahkan dan Italia "hanya" bertarung dalam 90 menit normal.
Cukup sepadan untuk menyeimbangkan kondisi fisik kedua team.

Saya lebih melihat faktor mental dan ketidakberuntungan yang berperan dalam kekalahan telak Italia.

Setelah mengalahkan Jerman di semifinal, Buffon menjadi satu-satunya pemain yang tidak terlalu larut dalam euforia kemenangan.
Buffon yang juga adalah kapten tim malah menyuarakan kemarahan terhadap sejumlah pemain yang menganggap remeh kebangkitan Jerman di menit-menit akhir pertandingan dan berbuah penalti Oezil.
"kami bisa saja kalah 5-2 atau 9-2 kalau Jerman berhasil menyamakan kedudukan" cetus Buffon.

Euforia terus berlanjut dengan media-media di Italia begitu percaya akan tuah skandal yang menaungi team seperti saat juara Piala Dunia 1982 dan 2006, sejarah akan berulang.
Apalagi Spanyol adalah team yang tidak bisa mengalahkan Italia dalam 90 menit normal sejak pertemuan terakhir tahun 1920. Makin yakinlah para punggawa Italia.

Nampaknya faktor euforia internal dan pengaruh media menciptakan kondisi "nyaman" di internal tim Italia.
Alhasil ketika laga final berjalan, tidak tampak lagi determinasi seperti saat mengimbangi Jerman dan kedisiplinan seperti saat mengimbangi Spanyol di laga fase grup.

Saat David Silva mencetak gol pertama pun Italia masih tampak percaya bahwa mereka bisa mengalahkan Spanyol  meski fakta dilapangan berkata lain.
Dari Chielinni yang cedera sampai Andrea Pirlo terisolasi di lini tengah tanpa dukungan maksimal dari De Rossi, Marchisio dan Montolivo.
Demikian juga dengan Ballotelli dan Cassano yang seperti bermain berdua saja di lini depan.
Tidak ada ancaman berarti ke gawang Iker Cassilas dan yang ada justru gol kedua Jordi Alba yang berlari menyongsong sodoran Xavi sejak garis tengah tanpa diantisipasi oleh barisan belakang Italia.

Memasuki babak kedua saat Di Natale masuk, peruntungan Italia mulai membaik.
Iker Cassilas akhirnya "merasakan rumput lapangan" saat berjibaku menahan serangan dari Di Natale.
Lalu kemudian dengan maksud menambah daya tarung lini tengah, Prandelli mengganti Montolivo yang stylish dengan seorang petarung dalam diri Thiago Motta.

Sayangnya, tidak sampai 10 menit berada di lapangan takdir buat Italia ditentukan.
Motta cedera dan Italia tidak mungkin lagi memasukkan pemain.
Sejak saat itu praktis Italia mengemban mission impossible menaklukkan Spanyol dengan 10 pemain dalam kondisi tertinggal 2 gol dan permainan di kuasai Spanyol.
Dan benar saja, seiring kondisi yang tidak memihak Italia, gol ketiga dan keempat pun lahir dari kaki Torres dan Juan Mata.
Spanyol juara dan mereka memang layak juara.

Hanya kebobolan satu gol dalam enam pertandingan di Euro 2012 menunjukkan kesolidan lini belakang mereka.
Empat gol di final menjadi rekor tersendiri untuk skor sebuah laga final dan itu menunjukkan ketajaman Spanyol.
Terpilihnya Iniesta sebagai pemain terbaik Euro 2012 adalah pengakuan atas peran vital lini tengah mereka dalam mengusung taktik tiki-taka
Bahkan seorang pemain cadangan seperti Torres pun bisa menyabet sepatu emas top skor
Semuanya membuktikan kepantasan Spanyol sebagai juara Euro 2012.

Selamat Spanyol!!