Federal judge throws out U.S. ban on noncompetes

A federal court in Texas has thrown out the government’s ban on noncompete agreements that was set to take effect September 4.

In her ruling, Judge Ada Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas wrote that the federal agency had overstepped its power when it approved the ban.

"The FTC lacks substantive rulemaking authority with respect to unfair methods of competition," she wrote. "The role of an administrative agency is to do as told by Congress, not to do what the agency think[s] it should do.”