Baseball players, he added, "are entitled to the protection of labor law" like any other employees.

The transitional rules are forcing people to work outside the law and thereby to become even cheaper labour and the object of brutal exploitation without the protection of labour law, without social security and without the certainty of actually being paid.

The petitioners say the ruling has had a snowball effect, limiting or denying the basic protection of labor laws to millions of illegal immigrant workers in violation of principles like equal protection before the law and freedom of association under the nation's international treaty obligations.