View source for Modification of Final Judgment

{{Short description|Legal agreement in U.S. anti-trust litigation}}
In United States [[telecommunication]] law, the '''Modification of Final Judgment''' ('''MFJ''') is the August 24, 1982 [[consent decree]] concerning the [[antitrust]] lawsuit of January 14, 1949, ''United States vs. Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company'' and its ''Final Judgment'' on January 24, 1956, the latter of which it vacated.<ref name="MFJ1982">{{cite web
|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830041121/http://members.cox.net/hwilkerson/documents/AT%26T_Consent_Decree.pdf
|title=Civil Action No. 82-0192 Modification of Final Judgment
|publisher=United States District Court for the District of Columbia
|date=1982-08-24
|access-date=2025-03-14
}}</ref> The decree was made with [[Harold H. Greene]] as presiding judge in the [[United States District Court for the District of Columbia]].<ref name="justia-19830228"/>

The terms required the [[breakup of the Bell System]] and a reorganization of the [[American Telephone and Telegraph Company]] (AT&T), including removing local telephone service from AT&T control and placing business restrictions on the [[Regional Bell Operating Company|divested regional telephone companies]] in exchange for removing other longstanding restrictions on the types of business AT&T could enter.<ref>{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJguAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT139
|title=Highway of Dreams: A Critical View Along the Information Superhighway
|first = A. Michael
|last = Noll
|edition = digital printing | publisher = Routledge
|location = New York City | year = 2010 | isbn = 9781136685033 | lccn = 96041620
}}</ref>{{rp|125}}<ref>{{cite journal
| url = https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1084&context=btlj
| title = The AT&T Antitrust Consent Decree: Should Congress Change the Rules
| first1 = Lawrence A. | last1 = Sullivan | first2 = Ellen | last2 = Hertz
| journal = Berkeley Technology Law Journal
| date = September 1990
| volume = 5 | issue = 2 | page = 236
| doi = 10.15779/Z38JH3G | issn = 1086-3818
| publisher = [[University of California, Berkeley, School of Law]]
}}</ref><ref name="justia-19830228">{{cite web
| url = https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/552/131/1525975/
| title = United States v. American Tel. and Tel. Co., 552 F. Supp. 131 (D.D.C. 1983)
| access-date = 2019-01-29
}}  Full opinion accompanying the Modification of Final Judgment.</ref>{{rp|143 (also footnote 4)}}

The MFJ also consolidated the case ''[[United States v. AT&T (1982)|United States v. AT&T]]'' filed on November 20, 1974.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{FS1037C}}
{{United States antitrust law|state=collapsed}}
{{Bell System}}
{{Telecommunications}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1982 in technology]]
[[Category:1982 in United States case law]]
[[Category:Bell System]]
[[Category:United States antitrust case law]]
[[Category:United States communications regulation case law]]