Court Opinion

ID: 8875288
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-26 18:55:57.217812+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:06:19.095615
License: Public Domain

HAMLEY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting in part):
I dissent from that part of the majority opinion which holds that at least three members of respondent Commission must affirmatively vote for an order, and since this requirement was not met with regard to the section 2(c) violation, that part of the proceedings must be remanded.
I think it is too late in the day to raise this question. The Commission rule (16 C.F.R. 1.7) providing that a majority of the members of the Commission constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business, has been in effect for forty years. The reasonable construction of that rule is that a majority of the quorum would be sufficient to render a decision. It has been so construed by the Commission for a very long time. Congress has not seen fit to negate that construction by enacting legislation expressly prohibiting the Commission from acting through a majority of a three-member quorum.
I concur in the remainder of the majority opinion.
On Petition to Review and Set Aside an Order of the Federal Trade Commission
PER CURIAM:
The court en banc takes the case solely for the purpose of deciding “When is a majority a majority?”.
[The amendments ordered by the Court have been incorporated into the report.]
CHAMBERS, JERTBERG, KOELSCH and DUNIWAY, Circuit Judges, concur in the opinion of BARNES, Circuit Judge, as so modified.
MERRILL, BROWNING and ELY, Circuit Judges, concur with HAMLEY, Circuit Judge, in his dissent.