Lina Khan
Lina M. Khan (born March 3, 1989) is a British-born American legal scholar serving as chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since 2021. She is also an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School.
Lina Khan
While a student at Yale Law School, she became known for her work in antitrust and competition law in the United States after publishing the influential essay "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox".[1]
President Joe Biden nominated Khan to the FTC in March 2021, and following her confirmation, she took the chair in June 2021. During her tenure, the FTC has pushed to ban non-compete agreements, filed lawsuits against health care companies engaging in anti-competitive practices, and launched a high-profile lawsuit against Amazon.[2] In 2022, the FTC and the DOJ's anti-trust division blocked a record number of mergers on anti-trust grounds.[3]
Early life and education[edit]
Khan was born on March 3, 1989, in London, to a British family of Pakistani origin.[4][5] Khan grew up in Golders Green in the London Borough of Barnet. Her parents, a management consultant and an employee of Thomson Reuters, moved to the United States when she was 11 years old. The family settled in Mamaroneck, New York, where she and her two siblings attended public school.[6][7]
At Mamaroneck High School, Khan was involved in the student newspaper.[8] After high school, Khan studied political science at Williams College in Massachusetts. She was also an undergraduate visiting student at Exeter College, Oxford for a term.[9] Khan served as editor of the Williams College student newspaper and wrote her senior thesis on Hannah Arendt. She graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts.
Chair of the FTC[edit]
On March 22, 2021, Joe Biden announced that he was nominating Khan to be a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission.[24][25] On June 15, 2021, her nomination was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 69 to 28.[26] Khan was confirmed with bipartisan support, mainly attributed to her "influential anti-Amazon views" being widely reflected in Congress.[27] Biden then appointed her chairperson of the FTC.[28] Upon taking office, Khan became the third Asian-American to serve on the FTC, after Dennis Yao (who served from 1991 to 1994) and her former boss Rohit Chopra (who served from 2018 to 2021).[29]
Following her appointment as chairperson, both Amazon[30] and Facebook[31] filed petitions with the FTC seeking her recusal from investigations of the companies, suggesting that her past criticism of the companies left her unable to be impartial. However, according to legal scholar Eleanor Fox, the standard for recusal is very high and unlikely to be met for Khan.[32] Senator Elizabeth Warren and other supporters of Khan argued that the recusal demands amount to an attempt by these companies to intimidate Khan in order to curtail regulatory scrutiny.[33]
According to leaked documents, the FTC's Designated Agency Ethics Official (DAEO), Lorielle Pankey, did not believe Khan had violated any ethical standards,[34] but still recommended that she recuse herself from the case with Meta Platforms to avoid the appearance of bias; this recommendation was rejected by Khan and the FTC.[35] The official who made the recommendation was later revealed to have owned Meta stock at that time, prompting concerns about Pankey's own conduct.[36] In response, Khan and the FTC released a unanimous statement in support of Pankey.[37] Earlier in February 2023, FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson announced her resignation from the agency citing her opposition to Khan's leadership, including her refusal to recuse from FTC's lawsuit against Meta.[38]
On July 13, 2023, Khan appeared before a Republican-led House committee that questioned her leadership of the agency. The hearing took place shortly after the FTC lost a case blocking the Microsoft takeover of Activision Blizzard.[39][40] Democrats on the committee defended Khan and the actions of the agency, arguing that she was taking steps that protected user privacy.[41]
On February 22, 2024, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee released an interim report alleging abuse of power and waste of resources.[42][43]
Legacy and influence[edit]
In 2018 Politico described Khan as "a leader of a new school of antitrust thought" as part of its "Politico 50" list of influential thinkers.[12] New York magazine said she was "indisputably the most powerful figure in the anti-monopoly vanguard".[44] She was also listed as one of Foreign Policy's "Global Thinkers,"[45] Prospect's "Top 50 Thinkers,"[46] Wired's WIRED25,[47] the National Journal 50,[48] Washingtonian's list of most influential women,[49] and Time's "Next Generation Leaders."[50]
Khan's practices at the FTC have been met with both praise and criticism. Ankush Khadori of New York wrote in December 2023 that failed lawsuits against Meta and Microsoft led to reduced morale and high attrition among FTC employees.[51] However, Khan has gained praise for her tactics from members of both the Democratic and Republican parties. GOP Senator J. D. Vance from Ohio cited Khan's campaigns against large technology companies as a success for anti-trust efforts in the US, beliefs echoed by former Democratic representative David Cicilline, who expressed his confidence that Khan would ultimately prevail against large companies.[52][53]
Personal life[edit]
Khan is married to Shah Ali, a cardiologist at Columbia University in Manhattan.[4] In January 2023, Khan gave birth to their first child.[54]
