Thread by @matthewstoller

"On the basis of his antitrust record, he is an unjust man. Breyer is the candidate of big business and monopoly in America.”

I look back at the legacy of Stephen Breyer, perhaps the most important ally of monopoly power over the last forty years.
mattstoller.substack.com/p/stephen-brey…

According to former FTC official Charles Mueller, Breyer straight-up lied during his confirmation hearing, telling Senator Metzenbaum that antitrust plaintiffs sometimes won and sometimes lost in his court. In fact they always lost. mattstoller.substack.com/p/stephen-brey…

"When his retirement announcement came, I was watching an event on antitrust at the Mercatus center, a libertarian forum sponsored by firms like Google. The big law partners, upon learning the news, immediately turned from bashing Lina Khan to lamenting Breyer’s retirement."

The Chamber reassured the GOP about Breyer, who was confirmed 87-9. “Frankly, we didn’t feel like we had anyone on the court since Justice Powell who truly understood business issues,” U.S. Chamber official Conrad said. “Justice Breyer came close to that.”
nytimes.com/2008/03/16/mag…

Stephen Breyer is lauded as a pragmatist, but he was in fact a lunatic. Example:

"In one of his cases, Breyer suggested that those harmed by the monopoly practices at Boston’s Logan Airport could just go out and ‘build competing airports.’”
mattstoller.substack.com/p/stephen-brey…

"When Breyer was nominated to the Court, Bill Kovacic analyzed his antitrust decisions and demonstrated that Breyer was virtually identical in his reasoning/outcomes to Judge Posner. But for some reason Posner is a conservative and Breyer is a liberal!"
mattstoller.substack.com/p/stephen-brey…