Ashland Oil, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission

The majority opinion strips the Department of Justice of its litigating authority, effectively repeals 28 U.S.C. § 516, and wrests all substance from the role of oral argument in federal appellate court.

The majority opinion states that the very valuable trade secrets here involved may be surrendered to Congress “pursuant either to subpoena or formal request.” Majority opinion, p. 979. The first trouble with this declaration is that the subpoena here is invalid under the House Rules. The second is that the Government at oral argument based its position solely on the subpoena and repeatedly…