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The Carolina Panthers have settled their backup quarterback spot behind starter Bryce Young ahead of free agency.

Andy Dalton has agreed to a two-year contract to return to the Panthers, the team announced Tuesday. The new deal is worth $8 million, according to multiple reports.

Dalton, 37, was temporarily installed as the starter last season when coach Dave Canales benched Young after an 0-2 start. The 14-year veteran went 1-4, throwing for 989 yards and seven touchdowns with six interceptions.

But after Dalton sprained his thumb in a car accident in late October, Young resumed his position as the team’s first-string quarterback. The No. 1 pick in the 2023 NFL draft did not relinquish the role and capped the year with seven touchdown passes in his final three games.

‘I’d say we’ll take it week to week, but there are no more weeks,” Canales said after the 44-38 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 18. ‘Bryce is our quarterback. I’m so proud of the way he just took the challenge and just grew every week.”

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Young has lauded Dalton’s mentorship in the two seasons throughout the two have played with each other.

‘Me and Andy are super close,’ Young told reporters in January. ‘From when I first got here, just being able to talk with him through things, him having perspective on a situation that I had never been a part of, I was always leaning on him, always having conversations and just from a day-to-day basis.’

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President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation picked up support from a key Republican senator on his road to confirmation. 

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said Tuesday that he would vote to confirm Kash Patel to serve as FBI director for a 10-year term. 

‘I’ve spoken to multiple people I respect about Kash Patel this weekend—both for and against,’ Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, wrote on X. 

‘The ones who worked closely with Kash vouched for him. I will vote for his confirmation,’ Cassidy said. 

The Senate overcame a procedural hurdle on Patel’s nomination Tuesday with a party-line 48-45 vote, setting up a final vote on his nomination likely Thursday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Patel’s nomination in a 12-10 party-line vote to be considered by the whole upper chamber of Congress last Thursday. After Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats held Patel’s nomination for seven days, the committee’s chair, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, defended Patel last week ahead of the vote. 

Grassley said Patel ‘spent his whole career fighting for righteous causes’ and has ‘been a public defender, representing the accused against the power of the state.’

 

‘He’s been a congressional staffer, investigating the partisan weaponization of our legal system. And he’s served in key national security roles, protecting Americans from foreign enemies,’ Grassely told the committee. ‘He’s received support from former FBI agents, former federal and state prosecutors, and organizations representing more than 680,000 law enforcement officers. But Mr. Patel’s resume, his accomplishments and his support aren’t why he’s the best man for the job.’

Grassely said Patel ‘should be our next FBI Director because the FBI has been infected by political bias and weaponized against the American people.’ 

‘Mr. Patel knows it, he’s exposed it, and he’s been targeted for it,’ he said, describing how Patel was ‘instrumental in exposing Crossfire Hurricane,’ and ‘he showed that the Democratic National Committee funded false allegations against President Trump, that the DOJ and FBI hid information from the FISA court to wiretap a presidential campaign and that an FBI lawyer lied in the process.’ 

‘As reward for his efforts to uncover the truth, he was attacked by the media, and the DOJ secretly subpoenaed his records,’ Grassley said. ‘I know a thing or two about this kind of retaliation.’ 

At his confirmation hearing last month, Patel clashed with committee Democrats after he refused to share his grand jury testimony in the since-dropped classified documents case against Trump, as well as over Patel’s defense of Jan. 6 rioters and critique of the ‘deep state.’ Democrats had pushed for a second confirmation hearing for Patel, but Grassley denied that request. 

Trump nominated Patel in November, moving to replace former FBI Director Chris Wray. Trump tapped Wray to lead the FBI in his first administration but later accused him of weaponizing the agency. 

Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, have not confirmed whether they will vote in support of Patel. 

Both Collins and Murkowski notably voted against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation, for which Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. 

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lashed out at President Donald Trump on Wednesday, suggesting that Trump is in a ‘disinformation space’ regarding peace talks with Russia.

Zelenskyy made the comments to reporters in Kyiv after canceling a trip to Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. and Russia held peace talks earlier in the week. 

‘Unfortunately, President Trump – I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us – unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,’ Zelensky said.

Zelenskyy’s canceled trip to Saudi Arabia was widely seen as a rebuke of the agreements Trump’s team made with Russian counterparts during their Tuesday meeting there. Trump also followed up the meeting with aggressive criticism of Zelenskyy and Ukraine.

‘Today I heard, ‘Oh well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should’ve ended it after three years. You should’ve never started it. You could’ve made a deal,’ Trump said, appearing to suggest Ukraine was at fault in the war.

Trump envoy Keith Kellog, a retired 3-star general, arrived in Kyiv to hold talks with Zelenskyy on Wednesday. Ukrainian officials have emphasized that any peace deal will require U.S. security guarantees in order to ensure Russia does not continue the violence.

‘We understand the need for security guarantees,’ Kellog told Ukrainian media.

‘It’s very clear to us the importance of the sovereignty of this nation and the independence of this nation as well…. Part of my mission is to sit and listen,’ he added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio led the U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia, meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce also confirmed that Rubio’s team agreed to ‘lay the groundwork for cooperation’ with Russia on various issues in addition to Ukraine. They also agreed to appoint ‘high-level teams’ to begin working on a path to ending the conflict in Ukraine.

Their proposed framework for a peace agreement would see a ceasefire, followed by elections in Ukraine and the signing of a final agreement.

Reports from multiple foreign diplomatic sources say forcing Ukraine to hold new elections could be a key part of a peace deal. Both the U.S. and Russia believe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a low chance of winning re-election, the sources say.

‘Putin assesses the probability of electing a puppet president as quite high and is also convinced that any candidate other than the current President of Ukraine will be more flexible and ready for negotiations and concessions,’ the diplomatic sources said in a readout of the meeting.

Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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A law firm that represents Tesla and Elon Musk has written proposed legislation that would alter Delaware corporate law, according to a person directly familiar with the drafting of the bill.

The proposed legislation, drafted by Richards, Layton & Finger, or RLF, would amend Delaware General Corporation Law, and if adopted, could pave the way for the reinstatement of Musk’s 2018 CEO pay package at Tesla, worth tens of billions of dollars in options.

RLF confirmed their involvement to CNBC.

“Statutory changes are necessary to restore the core principles that have been the hallmark of Delaware for over a century and ensure that Delaware remains the preeminent jurisdiction for incorporation,” Lisa Schmidt, president of RLF, said in a statement.

The bill was introduced in the Delaware General Assembly on Monday and would require approval by the state’s two chambers as well as Gov. Matt Meyer before it could become law.

The pay package Tesla granted to Musk in 2018 was the largest CEO compensation plan in public corporate history, but the Delaware Court of Chancery in early 2024 ordered it to be rescinded.

In her ruling, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick wrote that the pay plan was inappropriately set by Tesla’s board, which was controlled by Musk, and that it was approved by shareholders who were misled by Tesla’s proxy materials before they were asked to vote on it.

Under the proposed legislation, Musk might no longer be considered a “controller” of Tesla, said Brian JM Quinn, a Boston College Law professor. Transactions that involve self-dealing with controllers or directors would be subject to less review than they are now, Quinn said. Those transactions range from going-private deals, to mergers and acquisitions, to board and executive compensation decisions.

“The real role of corporate law is to protect minority investors,” Quinn said. “With this bill, the legislature is saying, ‘Now, you know what? Protect them less.’”

The proposed legislation would also limit the kinds of documents that minority stakeholders are able to obtain through “books and records” inspection requests, Quinn said. Those stakeholders would be limited to formal items such as a certificate of incorporation or minutes of stockholder meetings but they’d lose access to informal communications such as emails or other messages between board members and executives, Quinn said. 

After the Court of Chancery’s ruling last year, Musk started a campaign to persuade companies not to incorporate in Delaware and moved the site of incorporation for his businesses out of the state. He has aimed his ire at McCormick with repeated and disparaging posts about her on X, his social network.

Other prominent executives, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Bill Ackman of Pershing Square, have also criticized the Delaware judiciary. 

“Delaware has taken some heat for supposedly being too hard on controller transactions,” said Renee Zaytsev, partner at Boies Schiller and co-chair of the firm’s securities and shareholder dispute practice. 

“These amendments seem to be a course correction that would make it significantly easier for boards and controllers to avoid judicial scrutiny of their transactions,” she said.

Tesla and Musk did not respond to requests for comment.

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PHOENIX — There he was, sitting alone in front of his locker Tuesday morning, without a single reporter around him.

He’s pitcher Elvin Rodriguez, the Milwaukee Brewers’ most exciting free-agent signing of the winter.

The same day that 23-year-old Japanese pitching sensation Rōki Sasaki announced he was signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Rodriguez, 26, who pitched last season for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, signed with the Brewers.

While there has been $3.2 billion spent in free agency this winter, the Brewers’ big move was spending $900,000 on Rodriguez with a $1.35 million club option.

That’s small market life in Milwaukee, which has dominated the National League Central Division since 2017, winning four division titles and has reaching the playoffs in six of the past seven season, despite having a paltry payroll.

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Now, after winning the NL Central in back-to-back years, instead of going for jugular like the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, the Brewers are standing pat.

It’s enough to drown yourself in beer and stuff your face with cheese curds.

“We really don’t have a choice, right?’ Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, their highest-paid player at $22 million, tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not up to us to decide who’s on the roster or who’s not, or if we’re going to acquire anybody in the offseason. It’s out of our control here.

“It’s a challenge we seem to have to face every year. We lose pieces. Some years, we lose more than others.

“You’d like to have every chance and opportunity to compete. I think we still do. We just have to go out there and see how it plays out.’

The Brewers lost All-Star shortstop Willy Adames to the San Francisco Giants and traded All-Star closer Devin Williams to the New York Yankees, and are staying within the organization to replace them, using reliever Trevor Megill and youngsters Joey Ortiz and Brice Turang at shortstop

“We’ve got some good young players,’ Yelich said. “We’re always relying on young players, trying to find a way. So, we’ll see. That’s kind of how it always is. We’ll see how it plays out.’

Brewers owner Mark Attanasio isn’t about to apologize. Sure, they would have loved to keep Adames. They wish they had the resources to sign a marquee free-agent starter instead of relying on Yankees castoff Nestor Cortes or perhaps wait to see if veteran free agent Jose Quintana’s price-tag drops.

Attanasio hears the complaints. He isn’t whining about the Dodgers and Mets. He isn’t moaning about the payroll disparity throughout the game more than any other small-market owner.

But he’s also not spending.

Attanasio insists they are struggling to break even, just like the Cubs claim they lost $20 million last year, and Angels owner Arte Moreno projects they’ll lose $50 million this year. The Mets and Padres lost in excess of $100 million last year. Their only bump in revenue, Attanasio says, was the $2.5 million cash influx from their wild-card playoff round against the New York Mets.

“My goal, from an ownership standpoint,’ Attanasio said, “is to always compete. … I don’t like to talk about us as a small market. We’ve certainly not played like a small market. Since 2005, we have the fourth-most most wins in the National League.’

The Brewers, Dodgers and Astros are the only teams in the major leagues to win at least 86 games in a full season for the past seven seasons.

The difference, of course, is that the Dodgers have won two World Series championships and four pennants in that stretch.

The Brewers haven’t been to the World Series since 1982, let alone win one.

“Is my job to win a World Series,’ Attanasio said, “or is my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion and a way for families to come together?’

It would just be a whole lot easier to compete for the World Series, Attanasio says, if the revenue streams were a bit closer to the big boys. While the Brewers have drawn 2.5 million fans the past two years, ranking 9th in the National League, and drew 3 million fans three times since 2008, their TV revenue is about $35 million. The Dodgers, in comparison, are in the middle of a 25-year, $8.35 billion TV contract, averaging $330 million annually.

“I don’t want to think small, but we’ve never been able to do what the big markets do in terms of free agency and payroll … ,’’ Attanasio says. “We don’t have the financial ability to bring in superstars. We try to hold on to whatever we can.’’

Now, if the local TV revenue was ever equally shared, like the NFL, it may be a completely different story. The Kansas City Chiefs have been in the Super Bowl three consecutive years and have had epic matchups with the Buffalo Bills. The last small-market World Series matchup was in 1997 with Cleveland and the Florida Marlins.

“If there’s a playoff game between the cities of Buffalo and Kansas City in the NFL, and it’s hugely followed, isn’t that good for the sport?’ Attanasio asks. “And why can’t we figure out how to get closer to that?. …

“You see what the NFL has done with their media contract. You see what the NBA has done. It’s all sitting right there. If we can do something like that, the pie is bigger for everybody, for owners, for players, for everybody.

“We just have to figure out how to do it, whatever the labor system is.’

Is it actually possible that one other teams would agree to share their local TV revenue?

“Sure, of course, anything’s possible,’ Attanasio said. “Probably better to ask those teams than me. But look, we’re going to do whatever the system is, we’re going to compete. For 20 years, we had the lowest media contract in baseball, and that didn’t stop us.

“And you had continuing gaps in baseball symmetry, and that didn’t stop us.’

They’ll still find ways to lock up players, just as they did with Christian Yelich on his nine-year, $215 million contract in 2020, or rookie Jackson Chourio with his eight-year, $82 million deal last spring.

“I think one of the reasons for our success is that we set out on a way of operating that we have stuck to for 20 years,’ Attanasio said. “And we have not wavered. We have executed and executed and executed. We’ve always tried to keep our players to the end. Sometimes we couldn’t.’

And yet, the Brewers keep chugging along.

“We recognize the challenges in the industry around the economics of the sport,’ Brewers GM Matt Arnold said, “but we’re not going to make excuses about any of that. We have to do things a little bit differently here, and we embrace that.’

Really, they have no choice.

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President Donald Trump has made his rounds at national sporting events since taking office in January. He attended Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on Feb. 9, becoming the first sitting president to do so. Trump also attended the 2025 Daytona 500 – NASCAR’s most famous race – last weekend in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Now, the general manager of the U.S. men’s hockey team hopes the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off is next up for Trump.

As the U.S. men prepare for their upcoming matchup against rival Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN), GM Bill Guerin said he would ‘love’ if Trump came to cheer on the Americans.

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‘We would love it if President Trump was in attendance,’ Guerin said during an appearance on Fox News’ ‘America’s Newsroom’ on Monday. ‘We have a room full of proud American players and coaches and staff. Listen, we’re just trying to represent our country the best way we can.’

The U.S. men will meet the Canadians in the 4 Nations Face-Off for the second time in the tournament following their intense round-robin match on Saturday, where Canadian fans booed the American national anthem and three fights took place in the first nine seconds of play. The Americans won the first matchup on Canadian soil at the Bell Centre in Montreal, 3-1. The final, however, will be held in the U.S. at TD Garden in Boston.

There’s tension between both nations, both in the hockey rink and the political arena. Earlier this month, President Trump delayed a 25% tariff he was set to impose on imports from Canada and Mexico. Canadian politicians have promised retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. if Trump’s tariffs go into effect.

Guerin, who played 18 seasons in the NHL and won two Stanley Cup championships, said the U.S. team has drawn ‘inspiration’ from the tension.

‘Canada-U.S. is a huge rivalry in hockey,’ Guerin said. ‘I think there was a little bit of a political flare to it. It’s just the time that we’re in. I think our guys used that as inspiration. If you let it get the better of you, then you’re in trouble. But I really do think the players used it as inspiration.’

How to watch United States vs. Canada 4 Nations Face-Off final

Date: Feb. 20
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Boston’s TD Garden
TV: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN+, Fubo and Sling

Catch the 4 Nations Face-Off final on Fubo

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Texans running back Joe Mixon will not have to pay a $25,000 fine for something he did not say. Nor will he have to pay a fine for what he did say.

Mixon won his appeal of the fine he received in late January for comments he made about officiating after the Texans’ divisional round loss to the Chiefs – a fine that came after he was initially penalized for something he didn’t say.

A letter from NFL hearing officer Chris Palmer states, ‘After reviewing the totality of the evidence. I find that you did not necessarily publicly criticize the officials … the NFL will rescind the $25,000 fine amount.’

The Texans’ running back was initially fined in late January for social media comments from former Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh that were falsely attributed to Mixon.

‘Why play the game if every 50/50 call goes with Chiefs,’ Houshmandzadeh wrote on social media during the Texans’ divisional round clash with Kansas City. ‘These officials are (trash) & bias(ed).’

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According to Mixon and his agent, Peter Schaffer, the NFL included Houshmandzadeh’s quote, which it attributed to Mixon, in its justification for the fine one month ago.

‘I’m getting fined by the (NFL) for what someone else said,’ Mixon posted on social media at the time. ‘What’s next? I get fined by them for Connor McDavid cross-checking an opponent on a (NHL) game! (facepalm emoji)’

After a brief review, the NFL reissued the fine for Mixon’s comments after the Texans’ loss, which included a couple of controversial calls against Houston.

‘Everybody knows how it is playing up here,’ Mixon said after the game. ‘You can never leave it into the refs’ hands. The whole world sees, man, what it is. When it comes down to it, you can never leave it into the refs’ hands. It’s all good, though.’

When the NFL reissued the penalty, Mixon took to social media again.

‘So let me get this straight NFL fines me 25k for something I didn’t even say,’ Mixon wrote. ‘Call them out for it, and they response was fine me AGAIN for something that’s not even a violation without even rescinding the first one. Where’s the accountability? Just respect the players.

‘Cold (world emoji)’

Now that Mixon has won his appeal, he will not have to pay either $25,000 fine.

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Following the 2025 NBA All-Star mini-tournament on Sunday, where Irving replaced an injured Anthony Davis as a reserve, Irving revealed his desire to join the Australian national basketball team for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

‘We’re in the process of that right now,’ the Dallas Mavericks star guard told reporters Sunday. ‘Just trying to figure out what’s going to be the best route for me to be eligible. There’s a lot of paperwork in between that.’

Irving was born in Melbourne, Australia, while his father Drederick played professional ball for the Bulleen Boomers. He grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, and holds dual citizenship in both America and Australia. Irving won gold as a member of Team USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but he was not included on the roster for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics or 2024 Paris Olympics. (The U.S. men won gold at both Olympic Games.)

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Although he left the door open for possibly playing for the red, white and blue at the next Olympics ‘Obviously, Team USA still has a decision to make’ Irving said it would be ‘great’ to represent Australia.

‘If I can be an Aussie at one point in my career and play for the Australian team, that would be great,’ said Irving, who will be 36 by the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The Australians finished sixth overall at the 2024 Paris Olympics, a slip from the nation’s bronze medal finish at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Games. Australia’s roster for the 2024 Paris Games included NBA players Josh Giddey, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles and Dyson Daniels.

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In its first appeal of its second term to reach the Supreme Court, the Trump administration is arguing that the judiciary is attempting ‘to seize executive power’ as courts have blocked the president from firing certain federal employees. 

Experts say the high court will likely be sympathetic to that argument and point to the ferocious dissent from a lower court judge, Trump appointee Greg Katsas, which they said laid the groundwork for Trump’s potential victory.

‘I am of the strong opinion that the devastating dissent written by Judge Katsas will strongly influence the current justices on the Supreme Court,’ Hans von Spakovsky, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital. 

The Justice Department filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in the case involving the firing of Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Special Counsel Office. Dellinger was fired from his role this month and shortly thereafter filed suit against the Trump administration, arguing that his termination was illegal and was ‘in direct conflict with nearly a century of precedent’ delineating proper removal of independent agency officials. 

A lower court judge initially issued an administrative stay that reinstated Dellinger to his position, to which he was appointed by former President Joe Biden. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to block that decision. 

The lower court then issued a temporary restraining order that reinstated Dellinger for 14 days. The DOJ appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which declined to lift the order on Sunday.

The panel, which voted 2-1, was split along party lines, with Katsas dissenting.

The Trump-appointed judge wrote that the order ‘warrants immediate appellate review’ as the issue at hand ‘directs the President to recognize and work with an agency head whom he has already removed.’

‘Where a lower court allegedly impinges on the President’s core Article II powers, immediate appellate review should be generally available,’ Katsas wrote. 

Katsas said the order ‘controlling how [the president] performs his official duties’ is ‘virtually unheard of.’ Katsas also wrote that the order ‘usurped a core Article II power of the President.’

In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the DOJ said the case ‘involves an unprecedented assault on the separation of powers that warrants immediate relief.’

‘Until now, as far as we are aware, no court in American history has wielded an injunction to force the President to retain an agency head whom the President believes should not be entrusted with executive power and to prevent the President from relying on his preferred replacement,’ the appeal reads. 

The Trump administration referred back to Katsas’ dissent numerous times in its appeal, arguing that the Court cannot allow courts ‘to seize executive power by dictating to the President how long he must continue employing an agency head against his will.’

Von Spakovsky called the appellate court’s decision declining to lift the order ‘really outrageous and an unprecedented abuse of their judicial authority.’

‘The Supreme Court itself has said that the president has the unrestricted authority to remove the single head of an executive agency, as Katsas points out, and yet these courts are thumbing their noses at the Supreme Court and blithely violating those precedents,’ von Spakovsky said.

Likewise, constitutional law attorney and Fox News Contributor Jonathan Turley said he expects the justices to ‘resonate’ with the arguments made in Katsas’ dissent. 

‘While the panel ruled on a technical barrier to the review of a temporary restraining order, the dissent correctly points out that this is an extraordinary claim of authority by the district court,’ Turley said.

Von Spakovsky called the appellate court’s decision ‘one of the worst examples of judicial activism we have seen’ and said ‘it needs to be immediately and decisively stopped by the Supreme Court.’

He continued on to advise that the court ‘should forgo its usual politeness and collegiality and severely criticize the district court judge for her contemptuous behavior as well as the appellate court judges for not stopping it.’

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The Senate Judiciary Committee soon will hold confirmation hearings for Gail Slater for assistant attorney general, antitrust division. Slater’s antitrust understanding is broad and deep; she previously worked in the Trump 45 administration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the private sector. She already has support from several senators and Attorney General Pam Bondi; she ought to be confirmed easily. 

Slater, once confirmed, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, and their respective agencies should return to following the Consumer Welfare Standard (‘CWS’), which has been the law of the land since the Supreme Court’s 1979 Reiter v. Sonotone opinion.  

Reiter adopted CWS from Professor Robert Bork’s seminal 1978 book, ‘The Antitrust Paradox,’ which explained that competition leads companies to benefit consumers through, for example, lowering prices, growing output, improving customer service, expanding research and development, and increasing innovation.  

CWS has proven to be a consistent, objective standard, measurable through economic analysis and empirical evidence. Consequently, because enforcers and courts could apply CWS fairly, it provided companies with predictability in policy, law and enforcement, which led to great innovation and growth.  

Unfortunately, the Biden administration disregarded the law and sought to wreck CWS, with his staffers, including Federal Trade Commission. Chair Lina Khan, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, Special Assistant to the President Tim Wu and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Rohit Chopra, leading the way.  

They are disciples of the discredited ‘Brandeisian Antitrust’ view, which is an amorphous standard that is subject to the whims of whichever antitrust enforcer is in office or the personal preferences of individual judges. Moreover, Congress never specified a maximum permissible market share or how big is too big for companies.  

For example, under Brandeisian Antitrust, a big company with a market share as low as 4.5% faced antitrust enforcement risk. Accordingly, Brandeisian Antitrust proponents claim that consumers are better off with fewer big companies, more smaller companies, and paying higher prices. 

The Trump administration will decide how to properly apply CWS and robustly enforce antitrust laws without adversely affecting U.S. innovation and global competitiveness, particularly because Chinese and other foreign-based companies compete neck and neck with U.S. companies (e.g., Chinese AI company DeepSeek). Worse, the E.U. imposed billions of euros in antitrust fines on U.S. tech companies (e.g., Apple, Alphabet), essentially transferring money from the employees and shareholders to E.U. bureaucrats. 

Department of Justice divisions commonly temporarily pause or request extensions for their active cases when awaiting confirmation of an incoming administration’s assistant attorney general. However, the outgoing Biden DOJ acted contrarily.  

For example, it abruptly filed an opposition motion in Visa, Inc. on the day before Trump’s inauguration, and on January 30, 2025, acting AAG Omeed Assef filed a new lawsuit to block Hewlett Packard’s proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks in the wireless local area network (WLAN) sector. Other examples of the Biden DOJ’s likely overreach include its RealPage, Inc. and Ticketmaster-Live Nation lawsuits. 

In Visa, the Biden DOJ, perhaps deflecting blame from its administration’s bad policies that caused high bankcard fees, alleged that Visa’s volume discounts and incentive payments were not procompetitive investments in its network and partnerships, but instead were anticompetitive and blocked competitors from entering the debit transaction sector.  

Visa is especially interesting because Dodd-Frank’s Durbin Amendment already mandates that debit cards enable at least two unaffiliated payment card networks, which ensures competition in transaction routing. It also caps interchange fees for Visa and MasterCard while exempting American Express and Discover, who therefore can charge merchants higher fees. 

Reiter adopted CWS from Professor Robert Bork’s seminal 1978 book, ‘The Antitrust Paradox,’ which explained that competition leads companies to benefit consumers through, for example, lowering prices, growing output, improving customer service, expanding research and development, and increasing innovation.  

In RealPage, the Biden DOJ, perhaps deflecting blame from its administration’s bad policies that caused skyrocketing rental prices, alleged that RealPage, Inc., which makes A.I. software that automates rental ‘comps’ to advise apartment landlords, price fixed and caused high rental prices.  

In Ticketmaster-Live Nation, the Biden DOJ, perhaps taking political advantage of Ticketmaster’s high profile technological failures (e.g. its November 2022 website crash for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour), alleged that Ticketmaster-Live Nation illegally monopolized the live event sector through exclusionary, retaliatory and other anticompetitive behavior.   

Slater and the Trump DOJ should pause and review these and other Biden administration antitrust actions. Antitrust enforcement is designed to protect competition, not individual companies. It is not for pursuing social policies such as preventing social media censorship, raising employee wages, minimizing inequality or limiting companies’ political influence.  

The Biden administration unwisely abandoned 46 years of CWS success and regressed to the previous failed Brandeisian view, thus creating uncertainty, stifling innovation, slowing economic growth and giving itself political and enforcement discretion. 

The Trump administration announced on February 12 that it will no longer recognize any statutory or for cause removal protections for FTC, Consumer Product Safety Commission and National Labor Relations Board commissioners, giving the president more freedom to replace them.  

Accordingly, the Trump administration can and should return to the Consumer Welfare Standard, reverse the Biden administration’s failures, and benefit consumers and the general economy.   

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