By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Baseball’s annual All-Star Game next month will remain in Denver after a federal judge on Thursday rejected a conservative small business group’s request that it be returned to Atlanta.
Major League Baseball had moved the July 13 game to Denver’s Coors Field from Truist Park outside Atlanta in early April, shortly after Georgia adopted a restrictive new voting law.
At a hearing in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni said Job Creators Network did not show it had legal standing to challenge the move, including on behalf of its estimated 3,600 members in the Atlanta area, or would suffer irreparable harm if the game stayed in Denver.
She also said that while the group had an “intense interest” in where the game was played, it was “not at all clear why it cares more about small businesses in Atlanta than small businesses in Denver.”
Job Creators Network had accused MLB of violating small businesses’ civil rights by moving the game.
It has been seeking $100 million of compensatory damages, as well as $1 billion of punitive damages.
The group’s founders include Bernie Marcus, a retired co-founder of Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc.
Georgia’s law was signed by Republican Governor Brian Kemp, following approval by the Republican-controlled legislature.
It added identification requirements for absentee ballots, limited drop boxes, and made it a misdemeanor to give water and food to people lined up to vote.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chris Reese, Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)
