Robert H. Jackson at the Antitrust Division
2005; Albany Law School; Volume: 68; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0002-4678
Autores Tópico(s)European history and politics
ResumoRobert H. Jackson served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of Antitrust Division of U.S. Department of Justice from January 1937 until March 1938. Although Jackson was head of Division for only fourteen months, he held that position during an important period for development of antitrust law and industrial policy in United States. This brief chapter in his legal career reveals many facets of Jackson's character, both as a person and a lawyer. It also provides an insight into development of Antitrust Division and of antitrust laws more generally. JACKSON'S ANTITRUST EXPERIENCE Jackson began his extraordinary career as a lawyer in upstate New York. Although he only antitrust case in private practice, that experience informed his views about antitrust laws years later when he was Assistant Attorney General. (1) In his draft autobiography, Jackson explains that he represented a number of furniture manufacturers from upstate New York and Pennsylvania who been indicted in Chicago for conspiring to maintain furniture prices: It was pretty clear to me that they so conspired, in spite of fact that conspiracy not succeeded, so far as I was able to determine, in maintaining or visibly affecting prices. It been seriously suggested by of counsel for some of interests that furniture men defend upon ground that while they agreed to maintain prices they not kept their agreements. This did not seem to me a very credible or creditable performance, and I advised my clients to buy their peace by pleading their corporations guilty and paying fines, which in no case amounted to more than $4,000. Other counsel advised some other defendants differently and after a long mass trial and a very expensive jury disagreed and they later pleaded guilty and paid their fines. I was impressed then, as I have been ever since, that antitrust laws are so vaguely expressed that average business man has no idea when he is and when he is not violating them. (2) This concern that businesses need clear antitrust standards to guide their conduct later figured prominently in Jackson's work as Assistant Attorney General. While Jackson built his successful private practice, he developed a relationship with Franklin Delano Roosevelt that would forever change course of his career. Jackson described his nearly twenty-year relationship with FDR in this way: For almost a score of years before Franklin Delano Roosevelt came to Presidency, I some acquaintance, but not intimacy, with him. It grew out of dealings with him on affairs of politics. (3) Although Jackson had no thought of asking or being offered a position in government after [FDR] was elected, Jackson went on a political speaking tour with FDR's Postmaster General and Democratic Party Chair James Farley in New York state election in 1933. This led Farley to ask Jackson to come to Washington. In February, 1934, Jackson succumbed to Treasury Secretary Henry T. Morgenthau Jr.'s offer to be General Counsel at Bureau of Internal Revenue. Jackson then became one of most famous lawyers in country after his widely-noted work on Andrew Mellon tax fraud prosecution. (4) FDR subsequently moved Jackson from Treasury to a brief assignment at Securities and Exchange Commission, then to Tax Division at Department of Justice, and then to Antitrust Division. JACKSON COMES TO THE ANTITRUST DIVISION Jackson took charge of Antitrust Division on January 18, 1937. He was not interested in position at first because he planned to return to private practice of law after completing his service as Assistant Attorney General of Tax Division. Attorney General Homer Cummings nonetheless persuaded him to accept job because the Antitrust Division many matters of policy to consider and Attorney General assured him that experience would be valuable. …
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