Baseball was her first crush. As a shy, bright girl growing up in Detroit,
she memorized the batting averages of all the Tigers. Years later, after
discovering the law, Shira A. Scheindlin shed her baseball card collection
for a robe and gavel.
Scheindlin sits in Federal District Court in Manhattan and, while most fans
of professional football have never heard of her, she may soon become as
familiar to them as Bill Parcells. She is presiding over Maurice Clarett
versus the National Football League, a case that could alter the landscape
of pro football.
Scheindlin, a slight, bespectacled woman with a sharp wit, chuckles at the
contradictions of her situation. She could not name a football player if you
spotted her both Brett and Favre, yet her decision could completely change
when and how young players enter the league.
"I don't think I have ever watched a football game," Scheindlin (pronounced
SHEND-lin) said in an interview in her chambers at the federal courthouse in
Lower Manhattan. "Well, maybe one half of one Super Bowl. Does that count?"
Clarett, a sophomore running back at Ohio State, was suspended for the
season by the university in September for receiving extra benefits worth
thousands of dollars and for lying to investigators. Two weeks later,
Clarett sued the N.F.L., asking the court to overturn a league rule that
prohibits players from entering the draft until they have been out of high
school for at least three years. As it stands, Clarett, who led the Buckeyes
to a national championship last season, is not eligible to join the N.F.L.
until the 2005 draft.
In his suit, Clarett contends that the N.F.L.'s rule violates antitrust law.
The N.F.L., which insists that the rule is legal, is fighting the lawsuit
vigorously. Written arguments from the N.F.L. and from Clarett's lawyer,
Alan C. Milstein, are due in court tomorrow. The case is likely to involve
only oral arguments and written filings, lawyers said, and Scheindlin is
expected to issue her ruling as soon as Feb. 1.
If Clarett prevails, it will most likely clear the way for freshmen and
sophomores in college, and even high school players, to attempt to make the
jump to the N.F.L., the way young players have done in professional
basketball, baseball and hockey.
Many league officials and even some players argue that many young men lack
the physical tools to compete in the N.F.L.; permitting them to try the pros
before they are 21 or so would mean risking their health. Some people think
the college game would suffer if more players were to depart for
professional football. Clarett and his supporters believe his lawsuit would
correct an unjust system.
Federal judges are assigned cases through a random lottery. Even so, some
lawyers said that Clarett could not have had better luck than to have his
case heard by Scheindlin. In some of her rulings, the judge has shown a
strong propensity to protect individual rights.
"I think that generally on the whole she is pro-plaintiff," said Matthew
Cantor, a partner at Constantine & Partners, an antitrust law firm in New
York. "That does not mean she is unfair, and there are judges that are
friendlier."
Scheindlin, 57, can be difficult to pin down, some lawyers said. She has
been called witty, sarcastic, no-nonsense, eminently fair, eminently unfair,
brilliant and antigovernment, and she has angered everyone from Rudolph W.
Giuliani to the conservative talk-show host Bill O'Reilly.
There has been one constant with Scheindlin: she has shown little patience
for lawyers who stall cases with unnecessary motions and postponements. That
is why the Clarett decision is expected to come sooner rather than later.
"I try not to tolerate nonsense because it delays things," said Scheindlin,
who does not discuss individual cases. "I pride myself in trying to be
prompt in my decisions. You don't want to delay justice by not deciding."
Scheindlin's father immigrated from Russia and her mother grew up in the
United States. After earning a law degree from Cornell (she also earned a
master's degree in Chinese history from Columbia), she was a clerk for Judge
Charles L. Brieant in Federal District Court in Manhattan. He once
remembered her as someone who got to the point quickly and logically. She
was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
While her ruling in the Clarett case is likely to generate controversy,
Scheindlin is accustomed to that. Six years ago, when Giuliani was mayor, the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority pulled from city buses a New York magazine advertisement that
poked fun at him for taking credit for most of what is good in the city. The
magazine sued the M.T.A., which is controlled by the mayor and the governor.
Scheindlin ruled in favor of the magazine, saying that it was engaged
legitimately in "a hybrid of commercial speech and political satire."
Her entertaining and sarcastic 30-page decision chastised the mayor, who had
appeared not long before in drag on "Saturday Night Live" and who was
featured in headlines every day. "Who would have dreamed that the mayor
would object to more publicity?" Scheindlin wrote.
Giuliani criticized the judge afterward, saying her decision had been wrong
and her thinking on free speech tortured.
Last year Scheindlin dismissed two perjury charges against a suspected
terrorist, Osama Awadallah. (A federal appeals court reinstated the charges
last month.) Scheindlin criticized the Justice Department for detaining
Awadallah indefinitely as a material witness without legal justification.
Shortly after Scheindlin's ruling, O'Reilly called for her impeachment on
his nightly show on Fox News, saying she had a "long history of
antigovernment activity."
When asked how she responded to such personal attacks, Scheindlin said: "A
judge is a human being. To be attacked or to be called unpatriotic is not
pleasant. But you just do your job and go forward. You do what you believe
is right."
Scheindlin then reverted to her mischievous sense of humor. She joked about
receiving letters that begin, "Dear Judge Judy." These are meant for another
judge named Scheindlin, Judy Scheindlin, the star of the television program
"Judge Judy."
"I hear she makes a lot of money," Shira Scheindlin said. "I hope I can
replace her."
She also acknowledged that she is likely to hear from more than a few sports
fans after she rules in the Clarett case.
"Maybe by then I'll know my football," she said, laughing.
