Court Opinion

ID: 9423447
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:07:48.654947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:44.341534
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice White,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with most of the Court’s opinion, with its holding that competitive factors must be considered in a § 20a proceeding and with its ruling that a hearing should have been held by the Commission in this case before approving the issuance of the securities by Railway Express Agency, Inc., to Greyhound Corporation. *508But I am doubtful about those parts of the Court’s opinion which indicate that although the public interest requires the consideration of competitive factors in connection with the issuance of stock under § 20a, the public interest also demands that if a lessening of competition is found or threatened within the meaning of § 7 of the Clayton Act, the issuance must be disapproved. Under § 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act, competitive factors must also be considered in determining the public interest, but there a balanced view of the public interest permits the approval of a merger or consolidation despite any actual or probable competitive impact. Mergers which would violate § 7 are thus permissible under § 5 if found in the public interest but only those acquisitions of stock which are not suspect under § 7 of the Clayton Act are permissible under § 20a.
In the last analysis the Court rests this rather odd distinction on the Act itself — that is, Congress is said to have intended this very result because it provided in § 5 (11) that the approval of a transaction under § 5 relieves the parties from antitrust liability and did not so provide in connection with § 20a transactions. I do not think, however, that this ends the matter, and I find unconvincing the speculative reasons the Court gives for suggesting that Congress intended any such result.
Much more persuasive to me is the approach of Pan American World Airways v. United States, 371 U. S. 296. That case involved the Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 973, re-enacted as the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, 72 Stat. 731, 49 U. S. C. § 1301 et seq., which provided antitrust immunity for transactions approved by the Civil Aeronautics Board under §§ 408, 409, and 412. The course of conduct attacked by the United States under § 1 of the Sherman Act in Pan American was not, however, within any of these sections. The Court, nevertheless, held that the conduct was clearly of the kind *509specifically committed to regulation by the Board under other sections of the Act and was unassailable in an independent civil action brought by the United States under § 1 of the Sherman Act.
In the case before us, § 20a (2) provides that it shall be unlawful for any carrier to issue securities unless approved by the Commission after finding that the issuance:
“(a) is for some lawful object within its corporate purposes, and compatible with the public interest, which is necessary or appropriate for or consistent with the proper performance by the carrier of service to the public as a common carrier, and which will not impair its ability to perform that service, and (b) is reasonably necessary and appropriate for such purpose.”
The Commission may grant an application under § 20a in whole or in part with such modifications and on such terms and conditions as the Commission may deem appropriate, and it may from time to time make such supplemental orders with respect to the transaction as it may deem necessary. §20a(3). Moreover, it is expressly provided that “[t]he jurisdiction conferred upon the Commission by this section shall be exclusive and plenary, and a carrier may issue securities and assume obligations or liabilities in accordance with the provisions of this section without securing approval other than as specified herein.” § 20a (7).
Having these powers conferred upon it in the name of the public interest, the Commission may, in my view, approve the issuance of stock by a carrier if it deems the public interest requires it even though there may be a probable lessening of competition which otherwise would violate § 7 of the Clayton Act. This seems to be precisely what Congress intended by expressly providing in § 7 of the Clayton Act itself that “Nothing contained in this *510section shall apply to transactions duly consummated pursuant to authority given by the . . . Interstate Commerce Commission . . . under any statutory provision vesting such power in such Commission ....” 15 U. S. C. § 18.
It makes very little sense to me to hold that a stock acquisition involving control may be approved if the public interest requires it, despite any actual anti-competitive impact, and yet to forbid the approval of an acquisition which falls short of control but which “may” injure competition within the meaning of the Clayton Act.
Thus while I agree that a hearing should be required before the Commission approves the issuance of the securities in this case, I would make it clear that competitive considerations are only some of the factors to be weighed in reaching a decision concerning the public interest, much as the Court has viewed the proceedings under § 5. McLean Trucking Co. v. United States, 321 U. S. 67. At the very least I would not now decide that the Commission is powerless to approve the issuance of securities under § 20a if it determines that the impact on competition would otherwise be barred by the Clayton Act.