Legal Commentary

Varney Warns Judges: Ignore the Bush Administration

By TChris

"Ignore everything the Justice Department's antitrust lawyers said and did during the Bush administration" is the message Christine Varney, head of the Justice Department’s antitrust division, will be sending to judges and businesses in speeches this week at the Center for American Progress and the Chamber of Commerce. In a reversal of Bush administration policy, Varney plans to enforce the antitrust laws.

In the speeches, Ms. Varney is expected to explicitly warn judges and litigants in antitrust lawsuits not involving the government to ignore the Bush administration’s policies, which were formally outlined in a report by the Justice Department last year. The report applied legal standards that made it difficult to bring new cases involving monopoly and predatory practices. ... During the Bush administration, the Justice Department did not file a single case against a dominant firm for violating the antimonopoly law.

"Warning" judges in a speech not to follow a repudiated policy is an interesting way to advance a legal position. [More ...]

The announcement is aimed at making sure that no court or party to a lawsuit can cite the Bush administration policy as the government’s official view in any pending cases.

Whether the duly warned judges will care about the Justice Department's revised "official view" will likely depend upon whether the official view coincides with the judge's view.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).