Court Opinion

ID: 9426839
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:04.604791+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.407889
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Blackmun,
dissenting.
I regard Mr. Justice Brennan’s dissenting opinion as persuasive and convincing, and I join it without hesitation.
I add these few sentences only to say that I think the plaintiffs-respondents in this case, which they now have lost, are the victims of an unhappy chronology. If Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Shoe Machinery Corp., 392 U. S. 481 (1968), had not preceded this case, and were it not “on the books,” I am positive that the Court today would be affirming, perhaps unanimously, the judgment of the Court of Appeals. The policy behind the Antitrust Acts and all the signs point in that direction, and a conclusion in favor of indirect purchasers who could demonstrate injury would almost be compelled.
But Hanover Shoe is on the books, and the Court feels that it must be “consistent” in its application of pass-on. That, *766for me, is a wooden approach, and it is entirely inadequate when considered in the light of the objectives of the Sherman and Clayton Acts. The Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 tells us all that is needed as to Congress’ present understanding of the Acts. Nevertheless, we must now await still another statute which, as the Court acknowledges, ante, at 734 n. 14, the Congress may adopt. One regrets that it takes so long and so much repetitious effort to achieve, and have this Court recognize, the obvious congressional aim.