DOJ Should Follow History, Reject T-Mobile/Sprint, Sohn Says
Pressure on antitrust chief Makan Delrahim to not sue to block T-Mobile’s proposed buy of Sprint is reminiscent of the fight over whether DOJ should drop its legal action to break up AT&T in the early 1980s, Georgetown Law Institute…
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for Technology Law & Policy's Gigi Sohn blogged Tuesday. At the beginning of the Reagan administration, powerful figures, including Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Commerce Malcolm Baldridge and Counselor to the President Ed Meese leaned on DOJ to drop its case against AT&T, Sohn said. Then-antitrust chief Bill Baxter stood firm, she said: “Baxter engaged the Cabinet secretaries in a lengthy debate over whether the case should be dismissed. In the end, the President did not weigh in on either side. That meeting put an end to the pressure on Baxter to drop the AT&T case, and the rest is history.” Delrahim faces similar pressure now, Sohn wrote. She's opposed to T-Mobile/Sprint.