From the AP:
An appeals court ruled Wednesday that federal agents were wrong to seize the infamous drug list and samples of 104 Major League Baseball players who allegedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.In a 9-2 vote, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with three lower court judges who chastised investigators who had a warrant for only 10 drug test results as part of the BALCO investigation into Barry Bonds and others.
The panel said federal agents trampled on players’ protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said the players’ union had good reason to want to keep the list under wraps, citing leaks of players purportedly on the list.
“The risk to the players associated with disclosure, and with that the ability of the Players Association to obtain voluntary compliance with drug testing from its members in the future, is very high,” the judge wrote. “Indeed, some players appear to have already suffered this very harm as a result of the government’s seizure.”
Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and Red Sox slugger David Ortiz both have acknowledged being on the list, and The New York Times has reported the Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez and Sammy Sosa also could be found on it.
The government seized the samples and records in April 2004. The list of 104 players said to have tested positive, attached to a grand jury subpoena, has been part of a five-year legal fight, with the players’ union trying to force the government to return what federal agents took during raids.
“This was an obvious case of deliberate overreaching by the government in an effort to seize data as to which it lacked probable cause,” Kozinski wrote.
He said the case was a significant test of the government’s search and seizure powers in the digital age, and issued guidelines for investigators to follow in future raids that included submitting computers to independent computer experts for sorting of data.
Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative founder Victor Conte has long been critical of the actions of the government, especially then lead investigator Jeff Novitzky.
“I have said that Novitzky has been using illegal tactics and not following the law since the day of the BALCO raid,” Conte said. “He seems to just make up his own rules as he goes along.”
This is why the list will never be fully released. There are too many legalities involved and, while I’m not sure if this is possible, those who leak information about the list could potentially face legal repercussions (at least that’s what the players’ union is hoping). We’re often quick to demonize the players found on the list, such as A-Rod or David Ortiz, however, while they cheated, it’s clear now that they’re not only victims in the sense that the list was supposed to be a private matter, but they’re also victims of government abuse. For that reason, the rest of the names will likely remain under wraps.
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10 Responses to A-Rod a victim of illegal search and seizure
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TIQ IQ
they were also told at the time that the tests would be anonymous and non-punitive, which was the condition under which the union submitted to the screening in the first place. as much as we all want that list released now, you can’t just break that promise that was made to the players 6 years ago just because the climate has changed and we want to know.
Exactly. Sure, we all want to know who was on the list, but there are so many rights being violated here. The players took the test voluntarily under a certain set of stipulations and those stipulations have not been adhered to because of the government’s unconstitutional use of its power. For those who want the rest of the names released, I get that, especially since A-Rod was the figurehead, essentially. But, just because he has suffered, we can’t expect the rest to suffer, too.
The names will come out they will just be slowly leaked so instead of having one big wound that would heal we have a little cut we keep ripping the scab off of every few months and let the healing process start all over again.
I agree, but that doesn’t make it any better, nor is the illegal actions of some people with access to the list grounds for ignoring the privacy of the other guys on the list.
I don’t think the entire list will be revealed if for no other reason than no one really cares about the guys on it who aren’t breaking records or leading their teams to championships–Ryan Franklin was suspended for steroids a few years ago and made the all star team this year. Jerry Hairston was named in the Mitchell Report, but he was a Yankee for a week before I stumbled across that. for every A-rod and Sosa there are probably ten Franklins and Hairstons, but their names will never be leaked simply because no one cares.
I completely agree with you. I think this list is complete bull. These players were volunteers and it shows how much the previous administration would go to create public talking points to hide from other foreign affairs the country is involved in. I truly believe that this is part of the propaganda machine that was the bush administration. It is completely illegal and another showing of how they say one thing and completely disregard the privacy of the average day citizen. (Sorry I got political, but I think the previous years has given fuel to this argument)
On a side note, What do you all think about Holliday or Bay in 2010?
I think I actually would prefer another year of Damon to either of those guys. Holliday can’t hit in the AL and Bay is hitting .257 and his numbers are actually slightly inflated by the torrid start–he hit .264 in May, .230 in June, and a whopping .192 in July (and slugged .295 for the month)
This Yankee offense is unbelievable with Hairston’s HR that adds yet another player to the list of Yankees with 10 HRs in fact he is the 10th player with 10 Molina doesn’t have the power or the at bats left to get 10 so count him out and Hinske does have the power and is only 5 HRs away so it really depends on the number of at bats he gets down the stretch but if we keep up this lead in the East maybe he might just see enough time to make it 11. If Derek Jeter hits 4 more which is looks like he will have no problem doing and if Posada (with his 17th today) can get a hold of 3 more than the Yankees will end up with the most players on one team with 20+ HRs ever! It really is crazy to think that 8 Yankees will end up 20 HRs (barring injury) and Melky has a chance to get to 15 making every player in the line up with 15+. Tex currently has 30 and Matsui and Damon have a chance to reach that number and I guess Swisher has a small outside chance to pop 30 making a up to 4 and probably 2 for sure, just imagine if Arod had been healthy all year and Nady hadn’t gotten hurt, but we are doing just fine anyway as you can see by the numbers.
Looks like with the injury to Posada’s hand and the fact that tomorrow is a day game after a night game Girardi has all he needs to start Molina to catch Burnett and no one in the media can make a big deal about it. I wasn’t so sure if he was going to go with Molina just because of what was said about Posada and Burnett but it is playing out that way.
Ha, what a coincidence! Just kidding…
Would ARod or any of those ‘outed’ have any legal recourse if they chose to do so? It probably better to just drop it at this point, but I’m just curious. Can the government just ‘get away’ with this?