At best, Phil Knight and Jim Carter could be guardedly optimistic. The finest lawyers in the land could not have made Nike s chances any better given the procedural posture of the case. It was time to take stock and head back home to the Pacific Northwest.
Meanwhile, Nike s critics were busy creating their own news for the next day s headlines. In San Francisco, a citizen rally against sweatshops was underway. The public protest took place at Niketown in Union Square on the same morning as the Supreme Court oral arguments. It was a combination of demonstrations, street theatre, and press conferences. The rally had been organized by members of the Global Exchange, Corpwatch, Sweatshop Watch, ReclaimDemocracy.org, Friends of the Earth, the Women s International League for Peace and Freedom, and the Sierra Club. Those who gathered aimed for the press to bash Nike yet again.205
Congressman Dennis Kucinich was also in San Francisco on the same day. In a prepared statement, he said: I m pleased that Nike has decided to become concerned about the liberties provided for in the United States Constitution. Unfortunately, their interest in the First Amendment came about right about the same time their own audit revealed factual misstatements to consumers. He added: [I]t is absolutely critical that the Supreme Court clarifies that there is no Constitutional right of corporations to distort the truth. 206
What the Court would do was anyone s guess. That did not, however, stop the pundits from making predictions of all kinds. Still, as the adage has it, those who predict the future should be prepared to eat broken glass. And as everyone soon discovered, there was a lot of broken glass to be consumed.
