John Paul Stevens

“ If municipalities were free to make economic choices counseled solely by their own parochial interests and without regard to their anticompetitive effects, a serious chink in the armor of antitrust protection would be introduced at odds with the comprehensive national policy Congress established. ”

“ The assumption that competition is the best method of allocating resources in a free market recognizes that all elements of a bargain-quality, service, safety, and durability and not just the immediate cost, are favorably affected by the free opportunity to select among alternative offers. Even assuming occasional exceptions to the presumed consequences of competition, the statutory policy precludes inquiry into the question whether competition is good or bad. ”

“ Concededly, it is often difficult to differentiate economic regulation from municipal regulation of health, safety, and welfare. "Social and safety regulation have economic impacts, and economic regulation has social and safety effects." ”

“ Accordingly, we have held that the critical decision to substitute economic regulation for competition is one that must be made by the State. That decision must be articulated with sufficient clarity to identify the industry in which the State intends that economic regulation shall replace competition. ”

“ Judges who are closer to the trial process than we are do not share the Court's fear that juries are not capable of recognizing the difference between independent municipal action and action taken for the sole purpose of carrying out an anticompetitive agreement for the private party. ”

“ When these bodies act as owners and providers of services, they are fully capable of aggrandizing other economic units with which they interrelate, with the potential of serious distortion of the rational and efficient allocation of resources, and the efficiency of free markets which the regime of competition embodied in the antitrust laws is thought to engender. ”

“ Today the Court acknowledges the anticompetitive consequences of this and similar agreements but decides that they should be exempted from the coverage of the Sherman Act because it fears that enunciating a rule that allows the motivations of public officials to be probed may mean that innocent municipal officials may be harassed with baseless charges. The holding evidences an unfortunate lack of confidence in our judicial system and will fosterthe evils the Sherman Act was designed to eradicate. ”

“ Nevertheless, the Court refused to find a firmly established immunity enjoyed by municipal corporations at common law for the torts of their agents. "Where the immunity claimed by the defendant was well established at common law at the time [42 U.S.C.] § 1983 was enacted, and where its rationale was compatible with the purposes of the Civil Rights Act, we have construed the statute to incorporate that immunity. ”

“ Although the Court correctly applies principles of federalism in refusing to find a "conspiracy exception" to the Parker state-action doctrine when a State acts in a nonproprietary capacity, it errs in extending the state-action exemption to municipalities that enter into private anticompetitive agreements under the guise of acting pursuant to a general state grant of authority to regulate health, safety, and welfare. Unlike the previous limitations this Court has imposed on Congress' sweeping mandate in § 1, which found support in our common-law traditions or our system of federalism, see n. ”

“ In this case, the jury found that the city's ordinance ostensibly one promoting health, safety, and welfare-was in fact enacted pursuant to an agreement between city officials and a private party to restrict competition. ”

“ Unlike States, municipalities do not constitute bedrocks within our system of federalism. And also unlike States, municipalities are more apt to promote their narrow parochial interests "without regard to extraterritorial impact and regional efficiency." ”

“ That fear, in turn, rests on the assumption that "it is both inevitable and desirable that public officials often agree to do what one or another group of private citizens urges upon them." Ante, at 375. ”

“ Notes
↑ Construing the statute in the light of the common law concerning contracts in restraint of trade, we have concluded that only unreasonable restraints are prohibited.↑ The jury returned its verdict pursuant to the following instructions given by the District Court:↑ "The Sherman Act reflects a legislative judgment that ultimately competition will produce not only lower prices, but also better goods and services. 'The heart of our national economic policy long has been faith in the value of competition.' Standard Oil Co. ”