This morning the Department of Justice, joined by 11 states, filed an antitrust suit against Google in federal court in the District of Columbia. The complaint alleges monopolization of the market for internet search. This is DOJ’s announcement:
Statement of the Attorney General on the Announcement Of Civil Antitrust Lawsuit Filed Against Google https://t.co/4ViBazX1R9
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) October 20, 2020
And this is the complaint. I haven’t had time to read it yet, but may have further comment when I have done so:
DOJ’s antitrust suit against Google has been filed in federal court in DC, here’s the complaint: https://t.co/NQL8XhHInA pic.twitter.com/pFeiOoRFzE
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) October 20, 2020
Many have been waiting for this to happen for quite some time. But if Joe Biden wins the election, the case is over. Dismissing the action will be the least the Biden administration can do to show its gratitude for Google’s loyalty to the party.
PAUL ADDS: A Biden victory would also mean an end to the Justice Department’s race discrimination case against Yale, unless private parties intervened before a Biden DOJ could dismiss the case. And, of course, it would effectively kill the Department of Education’s investigation of race discrimination by Princeton, even though Princeton’s president has confessed that the institution he runs discriminates.
Would the mainstream media condemn the Biden administration for killing these and other initiatives? Of course not. “Elections have consequences” would be the mantra.
They do. Yet, the same media outlets throw fits when a Republican administration reverses the course set by a Democratic predecessor. In fact, the New York Times was outraged when Secretary of Labor Gene Scalia tried to settle — not dismiss — a meritless case against Oracle for somewhere around $30-40 million, I believe. The case turned out to be worth $0.00.
Like Google, left-wing universities know that Democrats have their back. And Democrats know that mainstream media outlets have theirs.
STEVE adds: I’m not so sure a Biden Justice Department would drop the Google suit. Despite their partisan leanings, Silicon Valley has managed the rare feat of enraging both parties, and they are going to get nicked at some point soon. Also, antitrust suits tend to be carried over from one administration to the next regardless of party, and are only dropped slowly and usually with a settlement of some kind (like the IBM suit, brought in the last weeks of the Johnson Administration in 1969, and not dropped until 1982; the ATT suit was settled that same year after a decade under both parties). It will likely depend on who the Asst. AG is for antitrust. (FTC antitrust actions are more frequently abandoned by incoming administrations.)
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