California Takes On the N.C.A.A.¶

California wants to allow college athletes to sign endorsement deals and hire agents. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on Monday, bucking the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s long-held policy that students not be paid directly from their success, even as their colleges and coaches make millions each year on television broadcast deals and merchandise sales (not to mention the use of students’ likenesses). Until 2014, the N.C.A.A.’s restrictions also included how much food teams could feed players, only a fraction of whom eventually turn professional. The N.C.A.A. called the new law, which is to take effect in 2023, “unconstitutional” and said it might challenge it. It’s unclear if students in California who sign endorsement deals or hire agents will be penalized under the association’s rules.

Facebook vs. Elizabeth Warren¶

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said he would “go to the mat” and fight the Democratic senator, Elizabeth Warren, over her plan to break up big tech, should she become president. In leaked audio recordings with employees revealed by The Verge, the Facebook chief said that breaking up his company or Google or Amazon makes election interference “more likely” because “the companies can’t coordinate and work together.” In response to the audio, Ms. Warren renewed her criticism of Facebook.

Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara

What’s Next? (Oct. 6-12)

A New Gay Rights Case for a Changed Court¶

The United States Supreme Court, in its new term starting this week, will consider whether transgender and gay employees are protected under workplace discrimination laws, specifically whether discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation is considered sex discrimination under the existing federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In one case, Donald Zarda, a skydiving instructor, said he was fired because he was gay. “The claim could accurately be framed entirely in terms of sex and nothing else: Zarda was fired for being a man attracted to men,” his lawyers wrote. “That is sex discrimination pure and simple.” The case is the court’s first on gay rights since the retirement last year of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinions in all four of the court’s major decisions on the issue.