Second US judge blocks FTC ban on worker noncompete agreements
A federal judge in Florida has temporarily blocked a U.S. Federal Trade Commission rule that would ban agreements commonly signed by workers not to join their employers’ rivals or launch competing businesses, becoming the second judge to rule that the ban is likely invalid.
During a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan in Ocala, Florida, blocked the FTC from applying the rule to real estate developer Properties of the Villages, pending the outcome of the company’s lawsuit claiming the commission lacked the power to adopt the ban earlier this year.
Corrigan at the hearing said the rule implicated a question of “extraordinary economic and political significance” that Congress did not empower the FTC to address, according to a court transcript.
Corrigan cited the “major questions doctrine,” a legal theory embraced in recent years by conservative lawyers and judges - including the U.S. Supreme Court - in challenges to many Democratic and progressive policies. The doctrine says that federal agencies can only issue rules with broad societal impacts with Congress’ explicit permission.