Upper Deck Founder Sues Tea Party Organization

by News | posted at 2010-03-24 23:26:00
tagged: Upper Deck, Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Bill Hemrick

It was reported today that Upper Deck founder Bill Hemrick is suing Judson Phillips, the founder of a large for-profit Tea Part convention held recently in Nashville, Tennessee. The disagreement comes after Hemrick, a conservative fund raiser, claims he paid the down payment for former Alaska governor Sarah Palin to speak, only to be barred from attending the event.

He is seeking $500,000 in damages.

Hemrick's company, Upper Deck, and in particular Upper Deck Entertainment, the division responsible for producing gaming products like Marvel VS and the World of Warcraft TCG, has gone through some rough spots over the past year. It had to settle lawsuits with both Konami and Major League Baseball while losing major licenses like the aforementioned WoW TCG. The company recently laid off most of the people in Upper Deck Entertainment, while closing that portion of the company entirely.

Get the full story on Hemrick's tea party lawsuit from NYMag.com here.

The tea party movement is a primarily conservative political movement in the United States. While not an official party, many flying the tea party banner claim to stand for smaller government. The movement has been criticized for being commercially funded by "astro turf" organizations, and has been characterized as far right leaning.

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