Court Opinion

ID: 9422323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:02:07.307491+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:36.027210
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Whittáker,
with whom Mr. Justice Frankfurter and Mr. Justice Harlan join,
dissenting.
On the Court’s assumption that the Court of Appeals had power, sua sponte, to modify the decree, I would affirm. This Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals on the prior appeal largely on the very narrow ground that petitioner’s “reduction in brokerage was made to obtain this particular order and this order only . . . ,” *369363 U. S. 166, 176, and therefore the Court of Appeals was justified in limiting the Commission’s order accordingly.
When its attention is focused to the appropriateness of the scope of an order to restrain illegality, the Commission has shown responsible awareness of the difference in shaping its order to a situation like the one presented by this case, to wit: a specific, closely confined illegality as distinguished from a widespread illegal practice inimical to the public interest. See opinion of the Commission in In re Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Ted Bates & Co., Docket No. 7736, December 29, 1961, CCH Trade Reg. Rep., ¶ 15,643, pp. 20,474, 20,485. So, too, has the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit shown responsive awareness and appreciation of that distinctive difference. Swanee Paper Corp. v. Federal Trade Comm’n, 291 F. 2d 833, 837-838.