FWAAA
you should probably call AA's network dept. and let them know that AA will not fly the route; all the behind the scenes footstomping by you and everyone else won't change that DL won the right to operate the route.
DL has every legal basis to argue that the DOT's terms are not supported by any precedent and they also do not address the problem which the DOT intended to correct by the route reaward.
What you and E and the rest of the AA fan club has been trying to argue for months is that DL doesn't have the legal or economic basis to operate the SEA-HND route and it should be reawarded to AA.
The DOT flatly disagreed
http://media.bizj.us/view/img/5551701/delta-object.pdf
What the DOT and DL are arguing about is the level of restrictions that the DOT is attempting to impose on DL.
here is what DL says in its filing with the DOT
The Department made the correct legal decision and an eminently sound policy
judgment in permitting Delta to retain its Haneda-Seattle slot authority. The unprecedented
365-day-a-year-service mandate, however, stands in stark contrast: that proposed condition is
plainly unlawful and it reflects an ill-advised policy judgment, inviting almost certain appellate
vacatur. Delta respectfully requests that the Department abandon the condition and consider a
narrowly targeted dormancy condition to the extent the Department has any remaining concerns
about Delta’s commitment to the Haneda-Seattle route. Delta stands ready to work with the
Department to craft an appropriate condition.
Note the part about PLAINLY UNLAWFUL.
DL is now armed with the DOT's affirmation of the ECONOMIC basis of the route award and is focusing on the language.
and, yes, DL has threatened a lawsuit and will win - which is why DL is not afraid of losing the route and the DOT will have to admit once again that it screwed up and is playing politics with US aviation policy.
The US is a nation of laws. For someone who is supposedly a lawyer, you seem hopelessly ignorant of that fact.
Maybe you should be a bureaucrat in Latin America or Africa practicing law since you seem to think whatever capricious decision the government makes is right - as long as it goes for your side.