--- Background: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=penfield Quotes from yesterday: http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/0,1551,44899,00.html --- http://www.wired.com/news/antitrust/0,1551,44902,00.html Real MS Verdict: Jackson Blew It By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 2:00 a.m. June 29, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- Thomas Penfield Jackson is not merely a federal judge with a soft spot for government prosecutors and an undisguised contempt for Microsoft executives. He's also a media blabbermouth, whose private chats with reporters wound up costing the Justice Department its biggest victory in a generation. On Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Jackson's bad habit of trash-talking Microsoft honchos -- likening them to gangland killers and stubborn mules who should be walloped with a 2-by-4 -- was ample reason to overturn his breakup order and return the case to a different judge. In stentorian language seldom heard in discussions of a fellow jurist, the appeals court unanimously condemned Jackson's "rampant disregard for the judiciary's ethical obligations," and said he'd no longer be permitted anywhere near this case. During a hearing in February, the judges went even further, suggesting that Jackson engaged in more out-of-court chatter than any other judge in U.S. history. "The system would be a sham if all judges went around doing this," complained Chief Judge Harry Edwards. Microsoft's adversaries were left fuming on Thursday, insisting that if Jackson had held his tongue, the breakup order would have remained intact. "I wish he hadn't spoken out of turn the way he did because I truly believe that if he had exercised better judgment, we wouldn't have seen his remedies vacated," said Norm Hawker, a research fellow at the American Antitrust Institute, which advocates aggressive use of the antitrust laws. "He essentially pulled the carpet out from under his own findings," Hawker said. Remaining silent were Jackson's fans in the Washington establishment, who cheered the rotund jurist last year when he was denouncing Microsoft chairman Bill Gates as unethical and compared him to a "drug trafficker" and Napoleon. Last June, Time magazine columnist Margaret Carlson proclaimed that "the country is fortunate that there are people like Joel Klein and Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson willing to take on this icon of the dot-com IPO world, these, you know, rich guys who don't think that there's any place in America for regulation." In a Washington Post column, David Ignatius wrote: "Most of the plaudits in this case so far have gone to the Justice Department's lawyer, David Boies. But the real hero, I think, was Judge Jackson." By the time the 78-day antitrust trial started, it was clear that Jackson was permanently biased toward the Justice Department's view of Bill Gates as a recidivist monopolist. Jackson repeatedly cut Microsoft attorneys short during cross-examination, while treating David Boies, who argued the case for the government, with visible deference. He appointed Larry Lessig, a prominent liberal law professor and Microsoft critic, as a special master over objections from defense lawyers. He ordered a dismemberment of the largest software company in the world without holding one hearing on the topic, a move that seemed to shock the appeals court. Most antitrust trials of any substance take years to prepare: Jackson gave Microsoft six months. [...] ----- End forwarded message ----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jun 29 2001 - 07:58:21 PDT