Earlier today the Department of Justice announced that it will sue to block the proposed merger of telecom giants AT&T and T-Mobile. In their complaint and a live press conference this morning, Justice officials laid out their case for opposing the deal, focusing largely on anticompetitive effects, increased prices for consumers, and stifling of innovation.

Fox Business' Charles Payne, however, appears to have hit on the real motivator for the Justice Department's action: they're just hating on AT&T's success:

Oh, the political “vitriol” that is standing up for low-income Americans.

The Justice decision was actually, according to the Wall Street Journal's Martin Peers, a triumph of law over politics. AT&T has no shortage of politicians, tech heavy-hitters, advocacy groups, and even unions in their corner backing the T-Mobile deal. They have one of the best-funded and most influential lobbying shops in DC.

What they didn't have, as the Justice ruling lays out, is the law on their side. That's why the deal is being opposed, and not because of some half-formed notion of anti-business resentment expressing itself through DOJ's Antitrust Division.