Opinion ID: 548938
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Doctrine of Implied Revocation

Text: 14 Nevertheless, the doctrine of implied revocation provides a firm foundation for the district court's dismissal. Although the Williams Act, 82 Stat. 454, codified at 15 U.S.C. Secs. 78m(d)-(e) & 78n(d)-(f) (1988), does not foreclose all antitrust claims arising in the context of market manipulation, we hold that the Sherman Act is implicitly repealed in the circumstances of the case at bar. 15 The three seminal Supreme Court cases, Silver v. New York Stock Exchange, 373 U.S. 341, 83 S.Ct. 1246, 10 L.Ed.2d 389 (1963), Gordon v. New York Stock Exchange, 422 U.S. 659, 95 S.Ct. 2598, 45 L.Ed.2d 463 (1975), and United States v. National Association of Securities Dealers, 422 U.S. 694, 95 S.Ct. 2427, 45 L.Ed.2d 486 (1975), establish the rules for implied revocation of the antitrust laws in the field of securities regulation. To begin with, repeal by implication is not favored and not casually to be allowed. Only where there is a 'plain repugnancy between the antitrust and regulatory provisions' will repeal be implied. Gordon, 422 U.S. at 682, 95 S.Ct. at 2611 (quoting Philadelphia Nat'l Bank, 374 U.S. at 350-51, 83 S.Ct. at 1734-35). The holdings in Silver and Gordon teach that antitrust laws do not come into play when they would prohibit an action that a regulatory scheme permits. Strobl, 768 F.2d at 27. 16 In Silver, the New York Stock Exchange denied its members' request for direct telephone connections to nonmembers located in Texas. Because the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lacked authority to supervise the Stock Exchange's rules on direct telephone connections the antitrust laws were not revoked by implication. The holding in Silver was expressly limited to cases involving Stock Exchange rules and orders that lay outside the jurisdiction of the SEC, leaving open the possibility of implied revocation in other contexts. See 373 U.S. at 358 n. 12, 360, 83 S.Ct. at 1257 n. 12, 1258. In Gordon, the Court examined the other context expressly left open in Silver. There the New York Stock Exchange ruling in dispute--establishing a system of fixed commission rates--was subject to regulation and approval by the SEC under Sec. 19(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (1934 Act), 15 U.S.C. Sec. 78s(b) (1988). 422 U.S. at 685, 95 S.Ct. at 2612. In Gordon the elements of implied repeal were met because allowing the antitrust laws to play a role in the area of commission rates would unduly interfere with the operation of the securities law. 17 Further, in National Association of Securities Dealers, implicit revocation with respect to certain sales and distribution restrictions used in marketing securities of mutual funds was found. The Supreme Court held that because the SEC had the power to authorize such restrictions on sales and distributions under Sec. 22(f) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, 15 U.S.C. Sec. 80a-22(f) (1988), and because there was no way to reconcile the Commission's power to authorize these restrictions with the competing mandate of the antitrust laws, there was an implied repeal of the latter laws. 422 U.S. at 722, 95 S.Ct. at 2444. By way of contrast, in Strobl we found there was no inconsistency between the Commodity Exchange Act and the Sherman Act because price manipulation--a practice forbidden by the Sherman Act--was also forbidden by the Commodity Exchange Act. 768 F.2d at 27. As a consequence of the above decisions, repeal by implication may only be found where there is a conflict between the provisions of the antitrust and securities laws.