Judgment
The Court concluded that this was within the power of Congress under the Commerce Clause. The Court recognized that, "taken literally," the term "restraint of trade" could refer to any number of normal or usual contracts that do not harm the public. The Court embarked on a lengthy exegesis of English authorities relevant to the meaning of the term "restraint of trade." Based on this review, the Court concluded that the term "restraint of trade" had come to refer to a contract that resulted in "monopoly or its consequences." The Court identified three such consequences: higher prices, reduced output, and reduced quality.
The Court concluded that a contract offended the Sherman Act only if the contract restrained trade "unduly"—that is, if the contract resulted in one of the three consequences of monopoly that the Court identified. A broader meaning, the Court suggested, would ban normal and usual contracts, and would thus infringe liberty of contract. The Court endorsed the rule of reason enunciated by William Howard Taft in Addyston Pipe and Steel Company v. United States, 85 F. 271 (6th Cir. 1898), written when the latter had been Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Court concluded, however, that the behavior of the Standard Oil Company went beyond the limitations of this rule.
Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote a separate opinion concurring in the result, but dissenting in the Court's adoption of the rule of reason. Among other things, he argued that the "rule of reason" was a departure from prior precedents holding that the Sherman Act banned any contract that restrained trade "directly." See, e.g.., United States v. Joint Traffic Ass'n, 171 U.S. 505 (1898). While some scholars have agreed with Justice Harlan's characterization of prior case law, others have agreed with William Howard Taft, who concluded that despite its different verbal formulation, Standard Oil's "rule of reason" was entirely consistent with prior case law.
Read more about this topic: Standard Oil Co. Of New Jersey V. United States
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