---
title: "United States v. AT&T / Modification of Final Judgment (1982)"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "concept"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "United States v. AT&T (Modification of Final Judgment)"
aliases: ["MFJ","AT&T breakup","AT&T consent decree","Bell System breakup"]
first_seen: "2026-07-09T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["William Baxter","United States v. IBM","Judge Harold Greene","antitrust history"]
---


The antitrust settlement dismantling the Bell System — AT&T's divestment
of its local operating companies, paired with a modification of the 1956
consent decree — agreed and announced January 8, 1982, the same day
Assistant Attorney General William Baxter is popularly said to have
dismissed *United States v. IBM*. The vault's 2026-07-24 research
sharpened a distinction the popular retelling collapses: per the Federal
Judicial Center, the *AT&T case itself* was not judicially dismissed until
August 24, 1982 — seven months after the January announcement, following
Judge Harold Greene's review — and the local-company divestiture was not
implemented until January 1, 1984. "Finalized" the AT&T breakup is doing
different work depending on which of these three dates it means.

## References
- [[claim-baxter-dismissed-ibm-case-same-day-att-breakup-finalized]]
- [[claim-att-case-dismissed-august-1982-not-january-complicates-same-day-narrative]]
- Captures: 10-inbox/raw/2026-07-09-hop-baxter-ibm-att-same-day.md, 10-inbox/raw/2026-07-24-did-baxter-dismiss-us-v-ibm-the-same.md