Timeline of Antitrust Enforcement Highlights at the Department of Justice

This document contains four timelines:

• U.S. presidents, their political party affiliations, and their terms, from 1889 to present
• Attorneys general and their terms, from 1889 to present
• Assistants to the attorney general and assistant attorney generals and their terms, from 1903 to 2002
• Key cases and events for each decade from 1890 to 2000.

Assistants to the Attorney General and Assistant Attorneys General

William A. Day
3/17/03-7/27/05

Milton D. Purdy
7/28/05-7/6/08

Wade H. Ellis
11/6/08-3/1/10

William S. Kenyon
4/13/10-4/23/11

Jas. A. Fowler
5/15/11-7/31/13

George C. Todd
8/6/13-5/31/19

Charles B. Ames
6/1/19-3/31/20

Frank K. Nebeker
11/20/20-3/17/21

Guy Goff
4/26/21-11/9/22

Augustus Seymour
11/10/22-3/22/25

William J. Donovan
3/23/25-3/2/29

John Lord O’Brian
6/3/29-12/20/32

Harold M. Stephens
6/14/33-6/30/35

John Dickinson
7/1/35-12/31/36

Robert H. Jackson
1/21/37-3/1/38

Thurman Arnold
3/7/38-3/16/43

Thomas C. Clark
3/15/43-8/28/43

Wendell Berge
1943-4/30/47

John F. Sonnett
5/1/47-5/14/48

Herbert Bergson
6/16/48-9/30/50

Hugh G. Morison
1/7/51-6/30/52

Stanley Barnes
5/1/53-7/3/56

Victor Hansen
7/13/56-4/20/59

Robert A. Bicks
7/15/60-1/19/61

Lee Loevinger
3/16/61-6/10/63

William H. Orrick, Jr.
6/19/63-6/18/65

Donald F. Turner
6/1/65-6/1/68

Edwin M. Zimmerman
6/2/68-1/19/69

Richard W. McLaren
1/21/69-2/2/72

Walker B. Comegys
2/3/72-6/30/72

Thomas Kauper
7/1/72-8/1/76

Donald Baker
8/2/76-5/6/77

John Shenefield
5/19/77-2/21/80

Sanford Litvack
2/22/80-3/1/81

William Baxter
3/30/81-12/16/83

J. Paul McGrath
12/16/83-4/1/85

Douglas Ginsburg
9/1/85-11/10/86

Charles Rule
7/20/87-4/28/89

James Rill
6/22/89-5/18/92

Anne Bingaman
6/17/93-10/18/96

Joel Klein
7/18/97-9/29/00

Charles A. James
6/21/01-11/22/02

1. “Competition and Monopoly shows men in a tug-of-war. In the background two steers are fighting, while in the foreground, a figure stifles his competitors.”
2. “Red Tape is a huge spider web with a skull. The clock suggests the passage of time. The people caught in the web are being released by Justice Holmes as Don Quixote.”

1960

1970

• 7/24/70 – Newspaper Preservation Act enacted
• 10/22/71 – Complaint filed in U.S. v. Marine Bancorporation, Inc.; decided 6/26/74 by Sup. Ct., 418 U.S. 602
• 12/5/72 – Complaint filed in Nat’l Socy of Prof. Engineers v. U.S.; decided 4/25/78 by Sup. Ct., 435 U.S. 679 (1978)
• 4/16/73 – Complaint filed (amended 2/26/76) in U. S. v. National Broiler Marketing Ass'n; decided 6/12/78 in 436 U.S. 816 (Assistant Attorney General Shenefield argued for U.S. against Richard Posner)
• 7/24/73 – Creation of ATD Economic Policy Office (George Hay was first director)
• 11/27/73 – Indictment returned in U.S. Gypsum Co.; decided 6/29/78 by Sup. Ct., 438 U.S. 422 (first case to reach Sup. Ct. after violations of the Sherman Act were made a felony)
• 11/20/74 – U.S. v. AT & T complaint filed; settled by consent decree 1/8/82 requiring divestiture
• 12/21/74 – Antitrust Procedures and Penalties Act enacted (amending Sherman Act to make violations of it a felony – maximum 3 years in jail – and increasing maximum corporate fine to $1 million; amended Expediting Act of 1903)
• 1/16/75 – Goldfarb v. Va. State Bar decided, 421 U.S. 723 (1975) (Solicitor General Robert Bork argued for U.S. as amicus curiae)
• 6/26/75 – Gordon v. NYSE decided, 422 U.S. 659 (U.S. filed brief and argued as amicus curiae)
• 9/30/76 – Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, including Tunney Act, enacted
• 1/26/77 – Antitrust Division issued Antitrust Guide for International Operations
• 6/9/77 – Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois decided, 431 U.S. 720 (Assistant Attorney General Donald Baker argued for U.S. as amicus)
• 1978-79 – National Commn to Review Antitrust Laws and Procedures held hearings and issued 1/22/79 report to the President and Attorney General
• 10/78 – Original Corporate Leniency Policy announced
• 2/2/79 – Catalano, Inc. v. Target Sales, Inc. decided, 446 U.S. 643 (U.S. filed brief as amicus curiae)
• 4/17/79 – ASCAP v. CBS decided, 441 U.S. 1 (1979) (U.S. was amicus curiae)

1980

• 1980 – Antitrust Guide Concerning Research Joint Ventures was issued
• In FY 80 (ending 9/30/80) – 55 criminal cases were brought, largest since WW II, with average jail sentence of more than 3 months
• 1/8/82 – Settlement of U.S. v. AT&T announced
• 6/14/82 – New Merger Guidelines issued
• 6/18/82 – Arizona v. Maricopa County Medical Soc. decided, 457 U.S. 332 (1982) (U.S. was amicus curiae)
• 8/11/82 – U.S. v. Western Electric Co. & AT&T Co., 552 F. Supp. 226 (DDC 1982) opinion issued finding settlement of U.S. v. AT&T in the public interest
• 3/20/84 – Monsanto Co. v. Spray-Rite Service Corp. (1984) decided (Assistant Attorney General William Baxter argued for the U.S. as amicus curiae in support of petitioner)
• 6/84 – Revised Merger Guidelines issued
• 10/11/84 – Joint Research and Development Act of 1984 enacted
• 3/26/86 – Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574 decided (Deputy Assistant Attorney General Charles Rule argued for U.S. as amicus curiae)
• 12/9/86 – Cargill v. Monfort of Colo., Inc. decided, 479 U.S. 104 (U.S. was amicus curiae)
• 11/10/88 – Antitrust Division releases revised Antitrust Enforcement Guidelines for International Operations
• 2/23/89 – Complaint filed in U.S. v. Rockford Memorial Corp.; decided 4/3/90 by 7th Cir. (Posner, J.), 898 F.2d 1278

1990

• 11/16/90 – Sherman Act maximum corporate fine increased to $10 million
• 4/2/92 – Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued by the DOJ and the FTC
• 6/8/92 – Eastman Kodak Co. v. Image Technical Services, Inc. decided, 504 U.S. 451 (Assistant Attorney General James Rill argued for U.S. as amicus curiae)
• 8/10/93 – Corporate Leniency Policy amended
• 11/16/93 – Complaint filed in U.S. v. General Motors and ZF Friedrichshafen, AG (medium/heavy duty automatic transmission business-innovation market case); transaction abandoned 11/18/93
• 8/10/94 – Individual Amnesty Policy announced
• 4/5/95 – Antitrust Enforcement Guidelines for International Operations issued by the DOJ and the FTC
• 4/6/95 – Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property issued by the DOJ and the FTC
• 8/28/96 – Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care issued by the DOJ and the FTC
• 10/15/96 – Information and plea in U.S. v. Archer Daniels Midland resulting in the largest antitrust fine imposed to that date ($100 million)
• 4/8/97 – Revised Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued by the DOJ and the FTC
• 3/23/98 – Complaint filed in U.S. v. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Corp. (military products and services; single largest proposed merger ever challenged); transaction abandoned 7/16/98
• 5/18/98 – Complaint in U.S. v. Microsoft filed; decided 6/28/01 by DC Cir., 253 F3d 34, cert. denied 534 U.S. 952 (2001)
• 10/7/98 – Complaint in U.S. v. Visa U.S.A. Inc. filed; decided 9/17/03 by 2d Cir., 344 F.3d 229
• 5/20/99 – Information filed in U.S. v. F. Hoffmann-LaRoche and U.S. v. BASF AG (international vitamins cartel), with pleas and largest ever criminal fine ($500 million) imposed under any federal proceeding under any statute and the second largest antitrust fine ($250 million)
• 7/8/99 – Complaint in U.S. v. Cargill and Continental Grain (monopsony in agriculture) filed with proposed decree; U.S. responses to public comment filed 3/24/00; final judgment entered 6/30/00

2000

• 1/19/00 – Indictment returned in U.S. v. Mitsubishi (international graphite electrode cartel); after trial and 2/01 conviction, $134 million sentence imposed; largest fine resulting from antitrust trial
• 6/27/00 – Complaint filed in U.S. v. Worldcom, Inc. and Sprint Corp. (telecommunications and Internet services); transaction abandoned 7/13/00
• 10/01 – International Competition Network formed
• 11/2/01 – U.S. v. Microsoft settled; decree entered after Tunney Act proceedings, 11/12/02; 2002 WL 31654530, 2002-2 Trade Cases P 73,860
• 10/31/02 – Complaint filed in U.S. v. Echostar Communications and DirecTV Enterprises (pay television service); transaction abandoned 12/10/02
• In FY 03 (ending 9/30/03) – 41 criminal cases were brought, $107 million in criminal fines were obtained, and average jail sentence imposed was 21 months (a Division record)

Images Associated with Antitrust Events

Panel I (1890-1939)

From Left to Right:

1. Illustration from Puck, Wednesday, February 27, 1901, "King of the Combinations" by J.S. Pughe.
[Rockefeller standing on oil barrel with huge multi-tiered crown and several railroads–Reading Railroad (with oil tanker cars), Jersey Central R.R., St. Paul R.R., Lehigh Valley R.R.–and then oil storage tanks and wells on the top tier before the crown is topped off by a $ sign.] (from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES; she also provided the associated editorial in the publication issue in which the cartoon appeared)

2. Illustration from Life, April 24, 1902, "Kill It" re Beef Trust by Kemble
[stocks are labeled "The Press", and Uncle Sam's ax is labeled "anti-trust law"; cow's head is labeled "Beef Trust"] (from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES)

3. Photo of Attorney General Philander Knox
(obtained $500,000,000 appropriation for antitrust enforcement, legislative authorization for additional employees, including Assistant to the Attorney General to supervise antitrust enforcement; under his tenure, United States v. Northern Securities was filed on March 10, 1902 (Knox argued in the Supreme Court against an array of opposing attorneys who included his predecessor as Attorney General, John Griggs); United States v. Swift & Co. was filed on May 10, 1902; and United States v. Reading Co. was filed on June 12, 1902.

4. Photo of Assistant to the Attorney General William Alonzo Day
(photo courtesy of AXA Financial Archives)

5. Illustration from Judge, April 16, 1904, "Ouch" by Gillam
["oppressive trusts" businessman stubs toe on rock head of TR labeled "Sherman Anti-Trust Law" while Attorney General Knox, holding paper labeled "merger decision [Northern Securities was decided 3/4/04] and Senator Shaw look on] (from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES)

6. Photo of Attorney General William Moody
(argued United States v. Swift & Co. in Supreme Court)

7. Illustration from Puck, May 25, 1904, "Woodman, spare that tree; Touch not a single bough. Funds would be scarce if we Should "run amuck" –just now"
[TR stopping Attorney General Knox, wielding ax labeled "anti-trust laws" from cutting down a tree labelled "The Trusts" with a copy of the merger decision [The Supreme Court opinion in Northern Securities was issued on March 14, 1904]on the ground. The cartoon may be suggesting that TR's need for campaign money from the trusts for reelection would affect his Administration's antitrust enforcement] (from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES)

8. Illustration from Puck, September 27, 1905, "Down" by C.F. Keppler.
[football team of tool, clothing, tobacco, steel, beef, oil, leather, and coal trusts tackling/burying the tiny consumer, who is holding the tariff revision football] (from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES, who also provided the excerpt of the publication's editorial that relates to the beef packers' indictment, which was returned July 1, 1905, as U.S. v. Armour. See 142 F. 808 (N.D. Il. 1906), dismissing as to individuals because of "immunity bath" for cooperating with Bureau of Corporations investigation); a nolle prosequi was entered on February 25, 1913.)

9. Photo of Attorney General Charles Bonaparte
(under his tenure, cases against Standard Oil (11/15/06) and American Tobacco (7/10/07) were filed).

10. Illustration from Puck, May 23, 1906: The Infant Hercules and the Standard Oil Serpents
(from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES)

11. Photo of John D. Rockefeller with his attorney going into the trial of the Standard Oil trust

12. "1912 Wicker-Work Wicker-Sham," cartoon by Flohri of Attorney General Wickersham holding Sherman Antitrust Law Sword.
Attorney General Wickersham argued and reargued both American Tobacco and Standard Oil cases in the Supreme Court (from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES)

13. Illustration from London Punch, Titled "Wilson's Address to Congress on Trusts" and below the engraving, "The Trust Clinch" by L. Raven Hill, 1914
["President Wilson–"Break away there, gentlemen!" [In his Message to Congress upon legislation regarding Trusts, President Wilson advocated "the effectual prohibition of interlocking" amongst great industrial and financial corporations.]" (from the private collection of Kate Schlech, NCES)

14. Photo of Attorney General Homer S. Cummings

15. Photo of Assistant Attorney General Harold M. Stephens

Panel II (1940-1969)

From Left to Right:

1. Photo of Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold

2. Photo of Assistant Atttorney General, Attorney General, and Associate Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson

3. Mural in Main DOJ Library: Competition and Monopoly (see explanation on Timeline at 1941)

4. Mural in Main DOJ Library: Red Tape (see explanation on Timeline at 1941)

5. Photo of Second Circuit Judge Learned Hand

6. Photo of Second Circuit Panel that decided Alcoa case (left to right:) Learned Hand, Thomas Swan, Augustus Hand

7. Photo of Assistant to the Solicitor General, Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner

8. Photo of Supreme Court of the United States Building

Panel III (1970-2009)

From left to right:

1. Photo of Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building

2. Photo of Assistant Attorney General William Baxter

3. Front page above the fold of New York Daily News for Saturday, January 9, 1982, with this headline: AT&T Empire Broken Up, Must sell local phone companies

4. Photo of U.S. Capitol

5. Cover of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued by the DOJ and the FTC, 4/9/92 and 4/8/97

6. Photo of U.S. Archives