| Newsletter | https://danielhanley.substack.com/ |
This is a great GAO report from Jan 2023. It dispels an often-asserted claim that the US doesn't need two antitrust enforcement agencies.
Besides the argument ignoring the FTC's history & purpose, both agencies can clearly divide cases for maximum enforcement!
Life achievement unlocked. My first citation in a federal court decision.
People's belief that unelected & largely irremovable judges appointed by the Senate, an institution that embodies the worst aspects of minority rule, are more democratic than admin agency officials is laughable, given the existence of numerous checks.👇
https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/how-the-supreme-court-is-attacking-democracy/
The biggest mistake Congress can make when trying to enact legislation is assuming that the federal judiciary will properly facilitate its legislative directive without additional guidance, structure, and bright-line rules.
Senator Sherman made such a mistake in trying to advance what would become his namesake antitrust bill.
Basing decisions on what happens in the "real economic world" and rejecting "economist's hypothetical model[s]" was a good modus operandi for SCOTUS. They should go back to that.
Cite: Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 392 U.S. 481, 492-93 (1968)
Yet another one of the most eloquent and enjoyable pieces of scholarship I have read is written by Edward Purcell. As people know, Scalia was a phony who didn't really believe what he preached; he only used his marketed interpretative system to arrive at the conclusions he wanted.
Cite: Edward A. Purcell, Jr., Antonin Scalia and American Constitutionalism: The Historical Significance of a Judicial Icon 51-52 (2020).
Internal expansion is better and preferable than Mergers.
Build, Not Buy.
Cite: F. M. Scherer, Industrial Market Structure and Economic Performance 562 (2nd ed. 1980).
