(PatrioticPost.com)- Republican lawmakers are not going to let Major League Baseball just do whatever it wants without being checked.
Following MLB’s decision to remove its All-Star Game from Atlanta in protest to Georgia’s new voting laws, some GOP lawmakers are calling for anti-trust exemptions that the league now enjoys to end.
Rob Manfred, the commissioner of MLB, announced on Friday that the league would be moving its All-Star Game out of Georgia because of the voter reform laws passed in the state. That came after many liberal activists were pushing for businesses to boycott the state.
Republican lawmakers are none too happy about the decision. Representative Jeff Duncan, from South Carolina, was one of the first to say how unhappy he was with the decision. He tweeted:
“In light of @MLB’s stance to undermine election integrity laws, I have instructed my staff to begin drafting legislation to remove Major League Baseball’s federal antitrust exception.”
Back in 1992, MLB won a major victory in court when the Supreme Court ruled that the United States’ antitrust laws didn’t apply to them. The reasoning was that the high court said baseball wasn’t considered interstate commerce.
Oddly, though, this same exemption doesn’t apply to the other professional sports such as the NBA, NHL or NFL.
It’s one thing that Utah Senator Mike Lee specifically questioned when he tweeted:
“Why does @MLB still have antitrust immunity? It’s time for the federal government to stop granting special privileges to specific, favored corporations — especially those that punish their political opponents.”
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, was not happy with MLB’s decision to pull the All-Star Game out of the state. Since signing the bill, Kemp has maintained that the new voter law will ensure that all elections in the state will be protected from any potential voter fraud.
In a press conference he held Saturday, Kemp talked about the decision, saying it was an example of a big corporation caving to criticism from Democrats and participating in cancel culture. He said:
“Major League Baseball caved to fear and lies from liberal activists. They ignored the facts of our new election integrity law and they ignored the consequences of their decision on our local community.”
On Monday, Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, stood up for Georgia, too. He took action of his own, backing out of throwing the first pitch at a Texas Rangers game and saying he won’t participate in any upcoming MLB events.
He tweeted recently:
“I was looking forward to throwing out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers’ home opening game until @MLB adopted what has turned out to be a false narrative about Georgia’s election law reforms. It is shameful that America’s pastime is being influenced by partisan politics.”
Abbot further said he won’t “participate in an event held by MLB, and the State will not seek to host the All-Star Game or any other MLB special event.”
For now, MLB has not announced plans of where it intends to host the All-Star Game this year.
