A long time ago, in a political environment, far, far away — in April 2024 to be exact — the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a proposed rule that sought to ban almost all employment-related non-competition agreements. This proposed rule sent blaster shots across the employment law universe. For several weeks, employers scrambled to determine how the proposed rule would impact their employment arrangements going forward and whether they might need to rewrite all of their employment agreements.
Prescient prognosticators, including yours truly, looked into the future and predicted that the rule would be put on hold by a court before it ever took effect, just like when Han Solo was frozen in carbonite and delivered to Jabba the Hutt. That prediction became a reality in August of 2024, when the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas enjoined the rule, putting it on ice.
Although the Biden Administration’s FTC initially appealed the Court’s decision a few months ago, the Trump Administration’s revamped FTC recently took steps that would essentially end any further challenges to the Court’s ruling, effectively shooting a proton torpedo down the FTC non-compete rule’s thermal exhaust port. Get it? Like when Luke Skywalker blew up the Death Star?
The death of the FTC rule has been both celebrated (like when the Ewoks partied on Endor) and bemoaned (like when, spoiler alert, Luke Skywalker learned some news about his family...
In 1995, Princess Diana made broadcasting history and shaped the future of the Royal Family when she sat down with Martin Bashir for an episode of BBC's Panorama. Three decades on, the interview c...