Senator Amy Klobuchar (D – MN) joined fellow Democrats Wednesday in grilling Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over his views on antitrust issues.
Klobuchar, ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, said that Supreme Court decisions on antitrust issues in recent years, including the decisions in Ohio v. American Express, Leegin Creative Leather Products v. PSKS and Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, have made it harder to enforce our antitrust laws.
Klobuchar: “Senator Lee and I run the Antitrust Subcommittee…and in recent years…the Supreme Court has made it harder to enforce our antitrust laws in cases like Trinco, Twombly, Leegin, and most recently Ohio v. American Express. This could not be happening at a more troubling time. We’re experiencing a wave of industry consolidation. Annual merger filings increased by more than 50% between 2010 and 2016. I’m concerned that the Court, the Roberts Court, is going down the wrong path and your major antitrust opinions would have rejected challenges to mergers that majorities found to be anticompetitive. I’m afraid you’re going to move it even further down the path. Starting with 2008, in the Whole Foods case, where Whole Foods attempted to buy Wild Oats Market. Very complicated. I’m going to go to the guts of it from my opinion. The majority of courts and…what happened is the Republican majority FTC challenges a deal, and you dissent and yo
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