The much-anticipated AT&T/Time Warner trial is now underway. In our previous column, we analyzed the legal issues raised by the Department of Justices’s (DOJ) suit to block AT&T/DirecTV’s (AT&T) proposed acquisition of Time Warner. Our discussion focused on the issues raised in the DOJ’s complaint, and the key issues that the D.C. District Court would likely examine in assessing the case. Now, at the approximate midpoint of the trial, we return to consider how a vertical mega-merger from a few years ago—and a familiar face from that case—may provide some clues of what is to come.

A Familiar Face at the Helm

Presiding over the case is Judge Richard J. Leon, a George W. Bush-appointee who took senior status in December 2016. Although the case was initially assigned to Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama-appointee, the assignment was shifted to Judge Leon without explanation. Judge Leon is no stranger to high-profile cases—he presided over the district court proceedings in Boumediene v. Bush, a case in which the Supreme Court ultimately held that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay had a right to the writ of habeas corpus. But more importantly for our purposes, he handled one of the largest vertical media mergers in recent memory—a case with many parallels to AT&T/Time Warner—the multi-billion dollar deal between Comcast and NBC Universal (NBCU).

A Look at ‘Comcast/NBCU’