VoluntaryTrade.org

The Department of Justice may be forced to disclose details regarding hundreds of pardons granted to corporations over the past 15 years after a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week reinstated a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by a former pardon recipient, Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group Ltd.

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a blistering dissent today in Federal Trade Commission v. Whole Foods Market, Inc., dismissing the FTC's case and the majority opinion as "a relic of a bygone era when antitrust law was divorced from basic economic principles." Kavanaugh's dissent sends a strong signal that the full D.C. Circuit should review the divided panel decision -- and ultimately land the case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Arlington, Virginia (July 29, 2008) -- Two judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington DC abruptly reversed an earlier decision by the same court that allowed Whole Foods Markets, Inc., to complete its acquisition of Wild Oats Markets, Inc., over the objections of the Federal Trade Commission. In a series of opinions issued today, the D.C. Circuit now said it was wrong for a district court judge to deny the FTC's demand for a preliminary injunction to prevent the now-completed merger pending an FTC-controlled administrative hearing.

The assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission's San Francisco office threatened to confiscate the business and personal assets of Mark and Marianne Hershiser if they did not sign a false confession and surrender the revenues from their small herb and herbal remedy business, according to documents published in connection with the Hershisers' First Amendment lawsuit against the FTC.