Four Decades for Justice
September 28, 2018
On September 25, 2018, ESPN published an article highlighting Cravath’s representation of Time, Inc. in Ludtke v. Kuhn, a landmark civil rights action brought before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in September 1978. The article profiled Melissa Ludtke, a former Sports Illustrated reporter and plaintiff in the case, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the court’s ruling.
Cravath took the case after Ludtke had been barred by the Major League Baseball (“MLB”) commissioner from post‑game reporting in team locker rooms, including the clubhouse of the New York Yankees, a team she covered regularly, in the 1977 World Series. In December 1977, Cravath filed suit on behalf of Ludtke and Time, Inc., publisher of Sports Illustrated, against MLB, the American League and The City of New York, arguing that MLB’s policy violated Ludtke’s Fourteenth Amendment rights. The court ruled in favor of Ludtke, finding that “the right to pursue one’s profession is a fundamental ‘liberty’ within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process guarantee,” with the case securing the equal locker room access that women sports reporters still rely on today.
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