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The Antitrust State-Action Doctrine After Fisher V. Berkeley, Daniel J. Gifford

Vanderbilt Law Review

In February 1986 the United States Supreme Court in Fisher v. Berkeley' upheld the validity of a municipal rent control ordinance against a contention that the Sherman Act preempted the ordinance. In an eight-to-one decision, the Court effectively gave the coup de grace to its earlier attempt to apply the federal antitrust laws to municipalities and political subdivisions. It also may have finally ended the remarkable series of disingenuous state-action decisions that had become an almost regular part of the Court's calendar since Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar' in 1975.Fisher holds a promise of restoring to the state-action exemption a …