Well we’re coming down to the wire, folks. The Supreme Court is wrapping up its term any day now, and no still no word on Leegin. Tom Goldstein from SCOTUSBLOG tells us the decision’s coming on Thursday. He also predicts that the author will be Justice Stevens, who has an antitrust background and hasn’t written an opinion since March.

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In Monday’s Credit Suisse v. Billing decision, the Supreme Court held that the federal securities laws implicitly precluded the application of antitrust law to the defendants’ alleged misconduct. The plaintiffs, buyers of newly issued securities, had accused the defendants, underwriting firms that had collectively marketed and distributed those securities, of violating Section 1 of the Sherman Act by agreeing to sell the securities only on the condition that buyers engage in various other transactions. The underwriter defendants sought dismissal of the complaint on grounds that the federal securities laws impliedly preclude application of the antitrust laws to the conduct in question.

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Geoff nailed it on the Whole Foods/Wild Oats affair last week. Always a day late and a dollar short, I’ve just written my own short piece on the FTC’s effort to block the merger of these two fancy grocers.

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My future colleague, Danny Sokol (who’ll be visiting at Missouri Law next year), is one of the authors of the fantastic Antitrust & Competition Policy Blog. Danny requested that I post the following…

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Geoff’s post last week on the FTC’s move to block the Whole Foods/Wild Oats merger poked fun at a stupid pun appearing in the agency’s press release: “If Whole Foods is allowed to devour Wild Oats, it will mean higher prices, reduced quality, and fewer choices for consumers. That is a deal consumers should not be required to swallow.” Geoff called the remark “very punny.” I, too, thought the remark was a bit too cute when I read it last Wednesday on the FTC’s website. A number of news articles on the FTC’s decision (e.g., here, here, and here) quoted the same pun from the press release. One assumes it was formulated as a soundbite for news stories.

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One of the more interesting parts of Senator Herbert Kohl’s recent Antitrust interview, in which he also discussed airline mergers, concerned antitrust’s treatment of media consolidation.

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I’ve previously tiraded about paternalism in my beloved Chicago. I won’t beat that dead horse, but I just can’t ignore the latest liberty restriction imposed by our esteemed aldermaniacs. The members of the aldermen’s Buildings Committee recently voted to extend the city’s smoking ban to performers in theatrical productions.

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One nice thing about being a legal academic is that you can diversify your political portfolio. By that, I mean that you become somewhat indifferent to who’s in office. If it’s folks you agree with, then you’re happy because your preferred policies are being implemented. If it’s folks with whom you disagree, then you’re happy because your job (criticizing bad policy) becomes easier.

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I was on Spring Break last week and was too tied up to do much blogging on Leegin, which I’ve been following pretty closely. Fortunately, Josh and Keith were on the ball with some great insights. I did eventually manage to do a little tea-leaf reading for the eSapience Center for Competition Policy (eCCP).

Read the full piece here.