Judge Allows Antitrust Suit Over Newspaper Deal
Client Alert | 1 min read | 04.10.07
On Tuesday April 10, 2007, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that real estate investor Clint Reilly has legal standing to sue as an individual reader threatened by the potential decrease in newspaper quality as a result of MediaNews Group Inc.'s acquisition of the San Jose Mercury and the Contra Costa Times. Illston said that the Newspaper Preservation Act suggested that a reduction of content diversity is a "threatened loss or damage" that antitrust laws were designed to prevent. Reilly argued that the acquisitions would create a monopoly in Northern California that would hike up prices and harm readers. Illston cited that Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker had allowed Reilly to sue the Hearst Corp. in 2000 over its acquisition of the San Francisco Chronicle. A trial in the case is scheduled for April 30.
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 06.12.26
DOJ Guidance Backs Away From Disparate Impact Liability
On June 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a formal opinion concluding that the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s (EEOC) existing interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) disparate-impact liability, including the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), are unconstitutional. According to the opinion, EEOC’s prior interpretations contemplate liability based on disproportionately adverse effects alone, without regard to an employer’s likely intent, rather than treating disparate impact as an evidentiary mechanism to “smoke out” intentional discrimination. DOJ found that this approach functions as a “qualified racial-proportionality mandate” that places “a racial thumb on the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial outcomes.” The opinion fulfills one mandate of Executive Order 14281, which rejected disparate-impact liability insofar as it “creates a near insurmountable presumption that unlawful discrimination exists wherever there are any differences in outcomes among different [demographic groups].”
Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.12.26
Auto Dealers: The FTC Is Back in the Driver’s Seat — Warning Letters Signal Renewed Federal Scrutiny
Client Alert | 13 min read | 06.12.26
Client Alert | 4 min read | 06.12.26
