Good News Everyone!

It looks like Robert Bork's hypocritical, corrupt, and ahistorical view of antitrust law is losing traction. 

Case in point, U.S. District Judge William Young just stopped the merger between JetBlue and Spirit airlines.

This would never have happened in the Trump administration, or the Obama administration, or pretty much anyone after Richard Nixon.

This has been happening because the FTC and the DoJ are willing to risk losing a case to promote competition, and I guarantee you that this is coming from the political appointees:

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked JetBlue Airways’ effort to merge with low-cost rival Spirit Airlines, handing the Biden administration a significant victory in its effort to preserve competition in a key industry that critics say has grown too concentrated.

In his 113-page decision, U.S. District Judge William G. Young wrote that while a combined JetBlue-Spirit could put pressure on the four big airlines that dominate the industry, it would hurt consumers who rely on Spirit’s low fares. He noted that when Spirit enters a market, rival airlines reduce their prices by 7 percent to 11 percent on average.

“If JetBlue were permitted to gobble up Spirit — at least as proposed — it would eliminate one of the airline industry’s few primary competitors that provides unique innovation and price discipline,” Young wrote. “… Worse yet, the merger would likely incentivize JetBlue further to abandon its roots as a maverick, low-cost carrier.”

………

The Biden administration has aggressively challenged mergers in key industries it thinks have become too concentrated. While its antitrust challenges have met with mixed results, it has prevailed in both challenges it has made involving the airline industry.

Unfortunately, there are still a large number of judges who still subscribe to the right wing view on antitrust.

Much like the judiciary's support for Jim Crow in years past, the attitudes are changing for the better.