Supreme Court Decides GTE Sylvania, First Major Chicago School Antitrust Victory

The U.S. Supreme Court decides Continental Television, Inc. v. GTE Sylvania, Inc., marking the first significant victory for Chicago School antitrust theory at the Supreme Court and signaling the beginning of judicial embrace of corporate-friendly antitrust doctrine. The decision reflects decades of work by Aaron Director and the University of Chicago Law School in developing economic theories that minimize antitrust enforcement, teaching generations of influential scholars including Robert Bork, Henry Manne, Kenneth Dam, Ward Bowman, and Wesley Liebeler. Director’s work through the Free Market Study (1946-1952), Antitrust Project (1953-1957), and subsequent teaching transformed antitrust analysis from concern about concentrated economic power to narrow focus on economic efficiency. The GTE Sylvania decision represents the beginning of judicial acceptance of these theories, which will accelerate with Bork’s 1978 “Antitrust Paradox” publication and the Supreme Court’s 1979 adoption of the “consumer welfare standard.” This case demonstrates how academic institutions, funded by corporations and conservative foundations, produce intellectual frameworks that reshape law to favor business interests - a key component of the Powell Memo strategy implemented through parallel channels including think tanks (Heritage, Cato), model legislation (ALEC), and legal scholarship (Chicago School).