Antitrust Laws

Entry 1: The Sherman Antitrust Act: The Sherman Antitrust Act was passed by Congress in 1890. The Sherman Antitrust Act was the first measure put in place to allow free trade without any restrictions, and prohibited trusts in order to end them. This act gave Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce. Any restriction on free trade was marked as illegal and could result in fines and jail time. The Sherman Antitrust Act was basically a shield to protect people from the restriction of big corporations; in addition, this act had an immediate, threatening impact on the dominate businesses in the economy.

Continuing on with Wilson, there were two key antitrust measures that Congress added. Clayton Antitrust Act comes as the first. In 1914, this act was made to strengthen the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The new Clayton Act did not allow corporation to gain stock to create a monopoly. If a company was to violate the law, its officers were able to be prosecuted.

The period from 1865 to 1900 was characterized by an astronomical boom in industry and manufacturing, economic growth for the rich, financial turmoil for the poor, and political corruption. As a result, the era has been named “The Gilded Age.” Just as something gilded is gold on the outside but worthless metal on the inside, these years seemed prosperous from an outside perspective, when in reality, the wealth gap was increasing at an alarming rate and big business had power over government officials. As a result of this, a lot of federal legislation was influenced by monopolies and often catered to the desires of businessmen. Since regulation of certain business practices would cause these trusts to lose money, Congress shied away from regulating

When analyzing a Section 1 Sherman Act violation under the rule of reason, the court will review “whether the restraint imposed is justified by legitimate business purposes and is no more restrictive than necessary.” The defendant will not be guilty of violating anti-trust laws if the defendant can prove that the restraint of trade had a legitimate purpose to further their business by using the least restrictive means to achieve

Then, in 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was set forth. This act was a federal law that prohibited monopolies. The Sherman Antitrust Act made any combination or trust in restraint of trade illegal. (Class notes, industrial reform evidence) There were many different types of social problems during this time period.

This act was enacted to clarify and define what constituted “monopolistic” activities. It protected the activities of labor unions and prohibited directors from serving in boards of competing

The Supreme Court unanimously agreed to reverse the previous court’s decision of not guilty citing that it is within the constitutional authority of Congress to standardize interstate commerce. The Court believed that the goal of the Act was to prohibit states from using substandard labor systems to their own monetary benefit by interstate commerce. The Court also established that the clause for keeping records of labor was fitting to allow for the enforcement of the Act. It was also decided that an employer could be held accountable to the law if they failed to follow it.

The act established that companies could not use treasury money to support or dissent someone’s political campaign, and the case decided whether are not this law was against the first and fourteenth amendment . The outcome of the case decided that this law was in fact not against the first or fourteenth amendment because companies could not be regarding as people and therefore did not reserve the same kinds of rights and liberties, such as freedom of speech or equal protection under the law . In the case of McConnell v. Federal Election Committee, the BCRA of 2002 was brought into question and whether or not Congress had the right to limit companies spending of money towards political campaigns, even if it was considered to be soft money and

this law was created to avoid monopolistic business. President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill into law on July 2, 1890. It was named for Senator John Sherman of Ohio. This law was created for those business owner take over all,for example standard Oil company trust took over the oil

This time called for the elimination of monopolies, and by doing so, competition increases and the power of the business elite decreases. With a rising middle class living in fear of the controlling and powerful business elite and political machines, the government needed to intervene. Therefore, in the late 1890’s the government passed the Sherman Antitrust Act which banned industrial monopolies that limited competition. The law sought to increase competition of the sale of items and goods, thereby helping the middle and lower classes earn money without fear of dominance of the wealthy elite and trusts. However, the act had little effect because the wording was so vague.

The Commerce clause refers to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, which gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foregin nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes”. This clause is one of the most fundamental powers delegated to congress by the founders. It has helped to seprate the powers between the federal governemtn and the states, along with the branches of governemtn and Judiciary. In simpler terms the commerce clause was to help regulate commerce among navigable waters.

Businesses would also threaten railroads that they would take their businesses elsewhere if they did not receive rebates. A.J. Cassatt, President of Pennsylvania Railroad, wrote letters to Roosevelt, urging him to take action and stop rebates by amending the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 (an act that was suppose to regulate monopolistic practices, but was not enforced by the government) (Cassatt). Rebates would continue to be given until Roosevelt amended the Interstate Commerce Act in 1902 and passed the Elkins Act in 1903. Roosevelt broke up monopolies and trusts because businesses and people were urging him

The act was modeled on the Compromise of 1850 but repealed both that compromise and the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Both of these things was very advantageous to the south. Both of the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Acts the south gained information that would help them in their expansion of slavery. Some of the advantages that the south received was a stronger fugitive slave law, that gave the possibility for slavery to exist in the remaining part of the Mexican Cession. It was also the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the future plan to build the Southern Pacific Railroad.

1. The Pendleton Civil Service Act: A. Created a merit system in order to get a many government jobs through competitive exams, would be the correct answer because my research revealed that the Pendleton Civil Service Act established that federal government jobs would be based on merit and not political affiliation. Government employees could then only be selected by taking competitive exams. B. Was signed into law by James Garfield could not be the correct answer because Garfield was not even alive when the Pendleton Civil Service Act was signed into law.

Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission Act gave the Commission (presidentially appointed commission) the power to monitor interstate commerce and crush monopolies and unlawful competition. The Clayton Anti-Trust Act soon followed and banned price discrimination, interlocking doctorates, exempted labor and agricultural organizations from anti-trust prosecution and legalized strikes and peaceful picketing. In essence, these acts paved the way for more democracy and reminded corporations that the government was the