Last month we discussed the role of the presidency in formulating antitrust policy, pointing out the fallacy of the view that the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice has historically been (or should be) completely independent of the White House. We posited that history shows that the Antitrust Division’s enforcement decisions have been (and should be) a product of informed presidential policy and that past presidents have attempted to apply the Sherman Act in a way that balances the panoply of challenges, both foreign and domestic, that every president elected by the people invariably faces.
Last month’s article covered the history of the Sherman Act from President Theodore Roosevelt’s decision to go head-to-head with J.P. Morgan and challenge the legality of J.P. Morgan’s powerful Northern Securities Co. to President John F. Kennedy’s threat to use of the Sherman Act against the powerful steel industry to curb inflation. While Roosevelt and Kennedy may be two of the more colorful figures in the history of antitrust enforcement, they are not the only presidents to leave their mark on the Sherman Act.
