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The Antitrust Legacy Of Justice William O. Douglas And The Curse Of The Curse Of Bigness, C. Paul Rogers

C. Paul Rogers III

Justice William O. Douglas’s position as our leading antitrust hawk cannot be denied. He is also, of course, our longest sitting Supreme Court Justice. During his long tenure on the Court, he wrote more antitrust opinions than anyone in our history. Surprisingly, however, with all the scholarship on Douglas, including two full-length biographies, there exists no thorough or complete treatment of his lengthy and controversial antitrust record. This article seeks to fill that gap by critiquing Douglas’s antitrust opinions in the context of contemporary antitrust doctrine. It considers Douglas’s deep distrust of economic power, fueled in part by his legal …