Another Federal Judge Kicks Khan to the Curb

July 13, 2023

In another stunning loss for Lina Khan and her radicalized FTC, a federal judge in Northern California played sheriff and threw Khan’s case against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision through the saloon doors and out into the dusty street.

Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said FTC had not demonstrated that it was likely that the deal would substantially limit competition. Au contraire, she ruled that the evidence showed that the popular “Call of Duty” game would be available to more consumers as a benefit of the deal.

FTC’s loss today comes on the heels of another one in a Northern California court that gave Meta the green light to make a similarly consumer-friendly, competition-enhancing deal with VR fitness game maker Within.

So far, Khan’s effort to browbeat the courts into assuming her skewed, ideological view of antitrust is finding no takers. But don’t expect Khan to quit trying. Instead, Khan will continue to search for the progressive judge of her dreams. Will the court’s rejection derail the FTC’s plans to hold an administrative trial on the deal in August? Like Ahab and the white whale, Khan will continue her chase of a career-defining case for as long as she’s Chair.

The big loser in this string of defeats is the FTC – a once-storied agency of experts, a culture vibrant with healthy debate, now being staffed with partisan hacks in pursuit of an agenda that has no basis in economics or law.