By Benjamin Popper 11/15/11 2:11pm

Freedom to Fight

Tell me that's not high art.

UFC Sues New York: Fighters Have First Amendment Right to Mixed Martial "Arts"

As we reported last week, New York is one of the few states where the sport of mixed martial arts is still illegal. The Ultimate Fighting Championship, MMA’s biggest league, has lobbied for years to get this changed so they could hold lucrative live events at venues like Madison Square Garden.

But so far they have had no luck with politics. So today Zuffa, the league’s parent, took a different tack. The UFC sued New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to overturn that state’s 1997 law banning Mixed Martial Arts on the grounds that the ban violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“This is mixed martial arts, emphasis on the arts,” said Barry Friedman, the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Constituional Law at NYU. “The reason these atheletes are suing is because they have been prevented from their self-expression on some of the biggest stages in the nation.”  Read More

By Brook Mason 5/12/10 5:38pm

Q&A

When a Chair Is Not a Chair

In the art world, Chelsea gallerist Barry Friedman is known as something of a market-timer, dealing in Chinese contemporary art, Dale Chihuly glass and Tamara de Lempika paintings as collectors like Madonna and Steve Wynn move in and out of those fields. This month, he’s showing Wendell Castle, an artist who is, to say the Read More