28 U.S.C. § 3701
Section 3701 · Definitions
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 9 court decisions — leading case Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association Incs v. United States (1999)
Most recently applied in 138 S. Ct. 1461 - Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Assn. (May 2018)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For purposes of this chapter—
(1) the term “amateur sports organization” means—
(A) a person or governmental entity that sponsors, organizes, schedules, or conducts a competitive game in which one or more amateur athletes participate, or
(B) a league or association of persons or governmental entities described in subparagraph (A),
(2) the term “governmental entity” means a State, a political subdivision of a State, or an entity or organization, including an entity or organization described in section 4(5) of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. 2703(5)), that has governmental authority within the territorial boundaries of the United States, including on lands described in section 4(4) of such Act (25 U.S.C. 2703(4)),
(3) the term “professional sports organization” means—
(A) a person or governmental entity that sponsors, organizes, schedules, or conducts a competitive game in which one or more professional athletes participate, or
(B) a league or association of persons or governmental entities described in subparagraph (A),
(4) the term “person” has the meaning given such term in section 1 of title 1, and
(5) the term “State” means any of the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, or any territory or possession of the United States.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Effective Date
Section 3 of Pub. L. 102–559 provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter and provisions set out as a note under section 1 of this title] shall take effect on January 1, 1993.”