Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Professor of Law, wrote this analysis of the Justice Department’s recent and much-discussed antitrust challenge to the pending merger of AT&T and Time Warner, Inc. His post was featured on the blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago.
Sagers Speaks with New York Times on AT&T/Time Warner and Regulatory Consistency
On November 21, David Gelles of the New York Times “spent all day on the phone with folks like Tim Wu, Spencer Kurn, Susan Crawford, Rich Greenfield, [Cleveland-Marhsall’s] Chris Sagers and Larry Downes trying to make sense of two seemingly contradictory moves by the Trump administration.” [this quote was from his LinkedIn post, forwarding his NYT article; the LinkedIn post is available here.
Specifically, he wondered why the Trump administration would on the one hand move to repeal the Obama FCC’s net neutrality rules, which were meant to control monopoly power in internet service, but simultaneously sue in antitrust to challenge AT&T’s pending acquisition of Time Warner cable, a lawsuit that at least superficially reflects the same concerns. He quotes Sagers in an article here.
Professor Geier Publishes Op Ed on Taxprof Blog on Tax Reform
Professor Deborah Geier’s op ed on tax reform efforts, entitled “Principled Tax Reform,” has been published on the Taxprof Blog. You can read the piece here.
Professors Oh and O’Neill Speak at CSU First Amendment Event; Dean Fisher Moderates
On November 9, 2017, Professors Reggie Oh and Kevin O’Neill spoke at a Cleveland State University event, Combating Hate within the Framework of the First Amendment, which was prompted by a recent instance of hate speech on campus. Dean Lee Fisher served as a moderator at this event.
Professor Sterio Presents at Emory Law School
Professor and Associate Dean Milena Sterio presented at a conference at Emory University Law School on November 10, organized by the Emory Law School International Humanitarian Law Clinic and entitled “Law of War Lessons from the Past Decade/Challenges of the Next Decade: the Emory IHL Clinic at 10!” Professor Sterio presented on a panel entitled “What’s Ahead: Law of Armed Conflict Challenges in the Next Decade and Beyond.”
Professor Geier Participates as Guest in “Sound of Ideas” on WCPN/90.3
As a guest on WCPN’s “Sound of Ideas” on November 6, Professor Deborah Geier discussed “The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” which was proposed by the House Ways & Means Committee on November 2. You can listen to or watch a video of the show here.
Sagers Appears on San Francisco Radio to Discuss Amazon
Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law, appeared Monday on KCBS Radio in San Francisco, to discuss a novel pricing strategy just unveiled by Amazon. Amazon has begun discounting prices charged for some products sold by third-party vendors on the Amazon website, paying its own money to make up the difference. An issue on the minds of many is whether the practice could be illegal, under the antitrust laws or otherwise.
Professor Forte Publishes Article on Contracts Clause of the Constitution
The Federalist Society Review has just published Professor David Forte’s strongly revisionist view of the history of the Impairment of Contracts Clause of the Constitution. The article can be found here.
Professor Mika Presents at New England Regional Legal Writing Conference
Professor Karin Mika presented at the New England Regional Legal Writing Conference on October 27th. Her presentation was “Connecting with our Students in the Age of Technology.” The conference was held at the University of Connecticut Law School.
In addition, Professor Mika has also been appointed chair of the Nominations Committee for the AALS Section on Teaching.
Finally, Professor Mika is one of the organizers (as well as talent coodinator and photographer!) for the Blackwell Awards Reception, which will take place at the AALS. The Award is named for Tom Blackwell who was shot to death by one of his students at Appalachian Law School about 15 years ago.
Sagers on Russia Hacking, AT&T, Whistleblowers, and Big Veterinary Consolidation
If further proof were needed that antitrust really is all over the place these days, Chris Sagers, the James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law, spoke with the press on antitrust aspects of affairs as diverse as Russian election hacking and veterinary medicine.
Eyebrows were raised by the suggestion this week by Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Richard Burr that Congress might given an antitrust exemption to Facebook, Google, and other powerful online platforms so that they can coordinate their security efforts. Sagers spoke on the matter with the National Journal, available here.
He spoke with Yahoo Finance about this week’s surprising news that the Justice Department might sue to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, in a story available here.
He spoke with Bloomberg BNA about a new federal bill that would protect whistleblowers who report their own companies for price-fixing, in Alexei Alexis, “Antitrust Whistleblower Protection Bill Advances in Senate,” BloombergBNA, Nov 02 2017.
Finally, he spoke with the trade journal Veterinary Information Network News about a merger of two very large veterinary chains, the Banfield firm (owned by Mars, Inc., the massive firm known as a candy maker but that is also involved in a variety of pet care services and products) and the Veterinary Corporation of America. Both firms are large and both are integrated vertically into a variety of veterinary products and services, but the deal was approved by the Federal Trade Commission on condition of a small set of local divestitures. You can read the story here.
CSU Law Faculty 