Joel Klein, the Justice Department’s antitrust chief, is also a seasoned appellate litigator. He’s argued about a dozen cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and he may be headed there again soon.
With the cameras flashing, and reporters clamoring for information at a press conference about what sanctions might apply in the wake of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s ruling that Microsoft had violated the nation’s antitrust laws, Klein took the lawyer’s route: “This landmark opinion, and in the history of antitrust this is indeed a landmark opinion,” he said, “this opinion will also set the ground rules for enforcement in the information age. It demonstrates, once again that no company, no matter how powerful, or how successful, can refuse to play by the rules and thwart competition for American consumers.”
