Ah, the power of the antitrust exemption: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th District upheld a lower-court decision that dismisses a lawsuit alleging wages for minor-league players were artificially lowered by MLB collusion.

Major League Baseball was granted an antitrust exemption in 1922, and that antitrust exemption was extended to Minor League Baseball in the Curt Flood Act of 1998 explicitly by Congress.

“Considering the case law and the Curt Flood Act, it is undeniably true that minor league baseball — particularly the employment of minor league baseball players and the requirement that they sign a uniform contract containing a reserve clause — falls squarely within baseball’s exemption from federal antitrust laws,” Chief Judge Sidney R. Thomas wrote in the opinion.

This is not the case that’s garnered wide attention in recent months, where minor-league players are seeking minimum wages and back pay. But they are linked; the minimum-wage lawsuit has been stayed while this case was under appeal.