into the control of MLB over the airwaves, the
federal appellate court ruled that the telecasts
were indeed copyrightable works and that clubs
were entitled to the revenues derived from
them.
As a result of these cases, economic
decisions regarding baseball have been left to
the players and owners. For this reason, baseball
has been seen as an anomaly with regard to U.S.
antitrust laws, and its exemption has been called
“an aberration confined to baseball” (Flood).
The push for congressional action to eliminate
this exemption intensified with the baseball
players’ strike from 1994 to 1995. The strike left
many in baseball, including fans , disenfran-
chised. Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum, an
Ohio Democrat who headed the subcommittee
on antitrust laws, led the fight to remove the
antitrust exemption from baseball. However,
the 234-day strike ended in an agreement
between owners and players, in which owners
promised to pay “luxury taxes” on clubs with
high payrolls. Congress was spared the necessity
of acting.
Local communities, however, faced the
possibility of losing their MLB franchises as
the economics of baseball changed dramatically
in the late 1990s. Major market teams, many of
them now owned by corporations rather than
wealthy individuals, drove up player payrolls.
This change hurt smaller market teams and

they could decide whether to play the season.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals, in Metropolitan
Sports Facilities Commission v. Minnesota Twins
Partnership, 638 N.W.2d 214 (2002), upheld the
injunction, which meant that contraction be-
came impossible for the 2002 season. The
baseball league later abandoned the concept of
contraction, at least fo r the near future.
In addition to its ongoing financial trou-
bles, baseball has faced other difficulties from
incidence of steroid abuse. Baseball first began
testing for performance-enhancing drugs dur-
ing the 2003 season. The testing was a type of
survey, designed to asses s the number of
players using steroids in the league. The te sts
were to be anonymous, and even those who
tested positive would not be punished. In
November 2003, MLB revealed that more than
5 percent of the tests conducted during the
2003 season were positive , prompting the first-
ever mandatory testing and punishment for
players who tested positive for performance-
enhancing drugs.
Donald Fehr of the
Major League Baseball
Players Association
addresses the findings
of the Mitchell Report,
which investigated
steroid use in baseball.

PERJURY and OBSTRUCTION OF
JUSTICE
, related to allegedly false denials of
steroid use.
FURTHER READINGS
Burk, Robert F. 1994. Never Just a Game. Chapel Hill: Univ.
of North Carolina Press.
Helyar, John. 1994. Lords of the Realm. New York: Villard
Books.
Kovaleff, Theodore P. 1994. The Antitrust Impulse. New
York: Sharpe.
Laitner, Colin. 2006. “Steroids and Drug Enhancements in
Sports: The Real Problem and the Real Solution.”De-
Paul Journal of Sports Law and Contemporary Problems.
3 (Summer).
Lewis, Michael. 2003. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an
Unfair Game. New York: Norton.
Manfred, Robert D., Jr. 2008. “Federal Labor Law Obstacles
to Achieving a Completely Independent Drug Program
in Major League Baseball.”Marquette Sports Law
Review. 19 (Fall).
Radomski, Kirk. 2009. Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the
Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the
Mitchell Report. New York: Hudson Street Press.
Sands, Jack, and Peter Gammons. 1993. Coming Apart at the
Seams. New York: Macmillan.
U.S. Congress Subcommittee on Economic and Commercial
Law. 1993–94. Baseball’s Antitrust Exemption: Hearing
before the Subcommittee on Economic and CommercialLaw.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

example, if a taxpayer purchases a parcel of land
for $500,000, and no deductions apply to that
parcel of land, the taxpayer’s basis is $500,000.
If the taxpayer later sells the property for
$550,000, the amount of gain realized by the
transaction is the sale price ($550,000) less the
adjusted basis ($500,000), or $50,000.
Where a taxpayer is allowed to depreciate
property with a limited useful life, such as an
automobile used primarily for business pur-
poses, the taxpayer’s adjusted basis is reduced.
Assume a taxpayer purchases an automobile for
$30,000, and then claims deductions for $5,000.
The adjusted basis of the automobile is then
reduced to $25,000. When the taxpayer sells the
automobile for $26,000, the amount of gain
realized is $1,000 (the sale price of $26,000
minus the adjusted basis of $25,000).
FURTHER READINGS
Bankman, Joseph, et al. 2008 Federal Income Tax: Examples
and Explanations. 5th ed. Frederick, MD: Wolters
Kluwer Law & Business.
Hudson, David M., and Stephen A. Lind. 2007. Federal
Income Taxation. Eagan, MN: West.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
BASIS 529
McEowen, Roger, and Neil Harl. 2008. Estate Planning,
PM–993. Available online at tate.
edu/basis.html; website home page: t.
iastate.edu (accessed August 28, 2009).

murdered. No one was prosecuted for the
crime, but suspicion in the town centered on
three white men. After her mother’s death, her
father fled, leaving Bates with his best friends,
Orlee Smith and Susie Smith, who adopted her
and raised her as their only child. They were
kind and indulgent parents and Bates grew to be
a strong-willed and determin ed child. When she
was eight, she learned of the circumstances of
her birth and adoption. The painful knowledge
of her parents’ suffering and the harsh realities
of life in the rural south became driving forces
in Bates’s life.
Although she grew up during difficult
economic times, Bates’s childhood was relative-
ly comfortable. Her relatio nship with her
adoptive parents was warm and loving, and
she was especially close to her father. Neverthe-
less, Bates’s childhood was not easy. Like other
black children, she experienced the sting of
racial discrimination from an early age. She
attended a segregated public school, using worn
textbooks handed down from the white chil-
dren’s school. Her school was little more than a
room with a potbellied stove that gave so little
heat she and her classmates often kept their
coats on all day.
In 1941 Orlee Smith became gravely ill.
When he knew he was going to die, he called his
daughter to his side. He was aware of the anger

Rock Nine
integrated
Central High
School
1959 State Press closed for financial reasons
1962 The Long Shadow of
Little Rock published
1971 Public school busing to
achieve integration began
1967 Elected to
NAACP national
board
1961–73
Vietnam War
1978 U.S. Supreme Court rejected racial
quotas in University of California v. Bakke
1986 The Long
Shadow of Little
Rock reprinted
1988 The Long Shadow of Little Rock
won American Book Award
19951995
◆◆
◆
1999 Died,
Little Rock,
Ark.
2001 Arkansas state law established
annual state holiday in memory of Bates
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION

independent “voice of the people” and regularly
attacked police brutality, segregation, and
inequities in the criminal justice system. When
the paper reported a particularly gruesome
incident in which a black soldier was killed by
a white policeman, many advertisers who were
wary of antagonizing their white patrons
withdrew their support, and circulation of the
paper dropped. However, the Bateses were able
to stay afloat and eventually regain their
advertisers and rebuild the paper’s circulation.
Their tenacity paid off in changes in working
and living conditions for blacks in Arkansas. For
example, as a result of their reporting on police
brutality in black neighborhoods, black police
officers were hired to patrol those areas.
From their earliest days in Little Rock, Bates
and her husband were active in the local branch
of the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People (
NAACP). In 1952 Bates
was elected president of the Arkansas State
Conference of NAACP branches. In 1954 when
the Supreme Court handed down its historic
decision in
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION 347
U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954),
declaring that segregated schools are “inhere ntly
unequal,” she and her colleagues began pressing
for implementation of the Court’s man date to

NAACP lawyers Wiley Branton and
THUR-
GOOD MARSHALL
(later a U.S. Supreme Court
justice) promptly obtained an injunction against
Faubus for his interference, but Faubus refused
to withdraw the troops. Bates decided to have
the students enter the school in a group. She
contacted eight of them and told them to
assemble at a designated intersection the
morning of September 4 and travel to school
together. The ninth student, Elizabeth Eckford,
did not receive word of the plan. Unaware of
the maelstrom awaiting her, Eckford arrived at
Central High alone and was taunted, jeered, and
accosted by hundreds of white people as
reporters and photographers from around the
world observed and recorded the scene. The
National Guard did not attempt to help Eckford
but instead blocked her entrance to the school.
Neither she nor any of the other members of the
Little Rock Nine—who arrived later in a group,
as arranged—were allowed to pass through the
line of Guard members surrounding the school.
The attempt by Bates and the nine students
to enter Central set off a series of violent
incidents that continued for 17 days. On
September 20, attorneys Branton and Marshall
obtained an injunction barring the use of the
National Guard to interfere with integration at

assembled again at the Bates home. Under the
protection of the paratroopers they were taken
to Central High, where they entered under the
watchful eyes of hundreds of reporters, photo-
graphers, and news camera operators. The
paratroopers remained at Central until Septem-
ber 30, when they withdrew to Camp Robinson,
12 miles away. The federalized Arkansas
National Guard remained on patrol at Central
until the end of the school year. Although it was
not necessary to recall the paratroopers, and the
number of minority students in Little Rock’s
formerly white schools steadily increased, vio-
lence, hatred, and acrimony continued to
plague the city for many years.
Bates endured many attempts to harass and
intimidate her, including rocks thrown through
her window, gunshots fired at her house,
dynamite exploded near her house, and crosses
burned on her lawn. In late October 1957 she
was arrested under a newly enacted ordinance
that required officials of organizations to supply
information regarding membership, donors,
amounts of contributions, and expenditures.
Although she was found guilty under the
ordinance, the conviction was later overturned
by the Supreme Court on grounds that the
ordinance requirement interfered with the
members’ freedom of association (Bates v. City
of Little Rock, 361 U.S. 516, 80 S. Ct. 412, 4 L.

Arkansas and Washington University. In 1986
the University of Arkansas Press published a
reprint edition of her autobiography, The Long
Shadow of Little Rock, and in 1988 the book
received the American Book Award, the first
reprint edition to be given that honor.
In 1987 Bates sold the State Press but she
remained a consultant for the paper. In the
same year Little Rock named a new facility the
“Daisy Bates Elementary School”. Bates contin-
ued her involvement in community activities
until shortly before her death on November 4,
1999, in Little Rock. President
BILL CLINTON
honored her by allowing her body to lie in state
at the Capitol.
FURTHER READINGS
Bates, Daisy. 2007. The Long Shadow of Little Rock.
Fayetteville: Univ. of Arkansas Press.
Branch, Taylor. 1989. Parting the Waters: America in the
King Years, 1954–1963. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Hine, Darlene C., Elsa B. Brown, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn,
eds. 1993. Black Women in America: An Historical
Encyclopedia. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
Jacoway, Elizabeth, and C. Fred Williams, eds. 1999.
Understanding the Little Rock Crisis: An Exercise in
Remembrance and Reconciliation. Fayetteville: Univ. of
Arkansas.
Smith, Jessie C., ed. 2002. Notable Black American Women.
Detroit: Gale Research.

statehood granted
1822 Elected to Missouri
House of Representatives
1821–26 Served
as U.S. district
attorney
1827–29
Served in U.S.
House of
Representatives
1830–34 Served as
member of
Missouri Senate
1834 Reelected
to Missouri
House of
Representatives
1850 Appointed
secretary of war
by President
Fillmore; declined
appointment
1861–64
Served as U.S.
attorney general
under Lincoln
1861–65
U.S. Civil War
1869 Died,
St. Louis, Mo.

BATTEL
Physical combat engaged in by an accuser and
accused to resolve their differences, usually
involving a serious crime or ownership of land.
It was recognized by the English king from the
eleventh to seventeenth centuries.
Trial by battel was introduced into England
by William the Conqueror. It was based upon
the belief that the winner of the battle, which
was tried by God, was the party who was in the
right in the dispute.
BATTERED CHILD/SPOUSE
SYNDROME
A condition created by sustained physical, sexual,
and/or emotional abuse, which creates a variety of
physical and emotional symptoms.
Violence of any kind is traumatic to victims,
and the thought that someone could exert
extreme violence against a loved one or a child
is repulsive. Battered-child syndrome and
battered-spouse syndrome are both the result
of repeated violence—beatings, choking, sexual
ASSAULT, verbal abuse, or any co mbination. The
resulting trauma leaves its victims with physical
and emotional scars, which can show up in a
variety of symptoms that can come on gradually
or suddenly. Often the symptoms are similar to
other, less dangerous conditions. Sometimes
there are no visible symptoms. From a legal
perspective, this makes both syndromes difficult

shaking episodes or even just one particularly
severe episode can result in death.
A child suffering from battered child
syndrome might be quiet and withdrawn,
lethargic, depressed, or violent. Someone who
does not kno w the particular child might not
immediately spot emotional symptoms, but if
the child displays unchildlike behavior, coupled
with unexplained chronic physical bruising,
chances are the child is a victim of abuse.
Those who investigate child-abuse crimes
must be extremely thorough, especially if the
child is very young and thus unable to
corroborate what the evidence shows. Some-
times a ph ysician will spot signs of abuse or
battered-child syndrome when a child is
brought into an emergency room for treatment
of some injury. A full investigation requires
interviews with anyone who has access to the
child, including parents, siblings, other relativ es,
neighbors, day-care providers or babysitters,
teachers, and doctors. Even those who are not
involved in abuse might have valuable informa-
tion to provide. Often, those who have
committed the abuse will offer vague or
conflicting information about what led to a
particular injury. If warranted, a child could be
placed in temporary
PROTECTIVE CUSTODY while
an investigation proceeds. Depending on the

signs of conflict on the part of the spouse.
Denial that a problem exists is a common
response to questions from concerned friends,
loved ones, or even medical professionals.
The phrase “battered-women’s syndrome”
was first used in the early 1980s; in ensuing
years lawyers began using the “battered woman”
defense in
HOMICIDE cases in which women
killed their husbands or boyfriends. Many
women claimed
SELF-DEFENSE, explaining that
the
MURDER victim had been physically abusive
for years. As the concept of battered-spouse
syndrome became more clearly articulated in
the 1980s and 1990s, the syndrome as a self-
defense argument gained strength. In fact, it
played into the
CLEMENCY decisions of several
governors, beginning with Governor Richard
Celeste of Ohio, who in 1990 granted clemency
to 25 women who had murdered their spouses.
Their trials had been unfair, he concluded,
because testimony about their abuse had not
been allowed as evidence. Other governors
followed suit in the ensuing years, including
Maryland govern or Donald Schaefer, Massa-
chusetts governor William Weld, and California
governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis. Experts

child syndrome, requires solid and substantive
evidence if it is to be used as a defense in a
murder trial. A woman who has no visible
physical signs of abuse might have been abused,
but simply claiming to have been abused with
no evidence at all at least warrants a thorough
investigation. Cases in which women—and
men—have claimed that an estranged spouse
has been violent, simply to gain custody of their
children, are not uncommon. The issue of
battered spouses may be clearer in the first years
of the twenty-first century than it was in the
1970s and 1980s, but it continues to evolve.
FURTHER READINGS
Justice Department Web site. 2002. Battered Child Syndrome:
Investigating Physical Abuse and Homicide. Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice. Available online at
web-
site home page: (accessed July 6,
2009).
Parrish, Rob. 2009. Abused Men: The Hidden Side of
Domestic Violence. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Walker, Lenore E. 2009. The Battered Woman Syndrome. 3d
ed. New York: Springer.
CROSS REFERENCES
Domestic Violence; Child Abuse; Women’ sRights.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
BATTERED CHILD/SPOUSE SYNDROME 535
BATTERY
At common law, an intentional unpermitted act

causes no actual physical harm but is, instead,
offensive or insulting to the victim. Examples
include spitting in someone ’s face or offensively
touching someone against his or her will.
Touching the person of someone is defined as
including not only contacts with the body, but also
with anything closely connected w ith the body,
such as clothing or an item carried in the person’s
hand. F or e xample , a battery may be committed
by intentionally knocking a hat off someone’s
head or knocking a glass out of someone’shand.
Intent Although the contact must be intended,
there is no require ment that t he defendant int end
to harm or injure the victim. In
TORT L AW,theintent
must be either specific intent—the contact wa s
specifically intended—or gene ral intent—the de-
fendantwassubstantiallycertainthattheactwould
cause the contact. T he i nt ent e lement is satisfied in
CRIMINAL LAW when the act is done with an intent to
injure or with criminal negligence—failure to use
care to avoid criminal consequences. The intent for
criminal law is also present when the defendant’s
conduct is unlawful even though it does not
amount to
CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE.
Intent is not negated if the aim of the contact
was a joke. As with all torts, however, consent is
a defense. Under certain circumstan ces consent
to a battery is assumed. A person who walks in a

purpose for using it is to cause death or serious
harm. State statutes define aggravated battery in
various ways—such as
ASSAULT with intent to kill.
Under such statutes, assault means both battery
and assault. It is punishable as a felony in all states.
Punishment
In a CIVIL ACTION for tortious battery, the penalty is
damages. A jury determines the amount to be
awarded, which in most cases is based on the harm
done to the plaintiff. Even though a plaintiff
suffers no actual injury,
NOMINAL DAMAGES (a small
sum) may still be awarded on the theory that there
has been an invasion of a right. Also, a court may
award
PUNITIVE DAMAGES aimed at punishing the
defendant for the wrongful act.
GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LAW, 3RD E DITION
536 BATTERY
Criminal battery is punishable by a fine,
imprisonment, or both. If it is considered
aggravated the penalties are greater.
v
BAYLOR, ROBERT EMMETT
BLEDSOE
Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor achieved prom-
inence as a jurist, a Baptist preacher, and a law
professor. He was instrumental in the founding
of the first Baptist college in Texas, which was

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW and jurispru-
dence until 1873. He died on December 30,
1873, in Washington County, Texas.
FURTHER READINGS
“1849 to 1883: The Early History.” Baylor Law School.
Available online at />Time_Periods/early.htm; website home page: http://
law.baylor.edu (accessed July 6, 2009).
Baylor, Robert Emmett Bledsoe (1793–1874). In Biographical
Directory of the United States Congress 1774–Present.
Available online at />biodisplay.pl?index=B000257; website home page: http://
bioguide.congress.gov (accessed August 28, 2009).
McSwain, Betty Ann McCartney. 1976. The Bench and Bar of
Waco and McLennan County, 1849–1976. Waco, TX:
Texian.
Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor 1793–1873
◆◆◆◆
❖
❖
1775–83
American Revolution
1793 Born,
Lincoln
County, Ky.
1824 Elected to
Alabama legislature
1819 Elected to
Kentucky legislature
1829–31
Represented
Alabama in the