On July 3, 2024, Federal Judge Ada Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas granted the motion for a preliminary injunction sought by Ryan, LLC’s and intervenors – the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, Business Roundtable, Texas Association of Business, and Longview Chamber of Commerce – against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's rule to ban noncompete agreements. The FTC rule is set to go into effect on September 4, 2024.

This week's ruling is currently limited to only the plaintiffs at this stage. Judge Brown has not yet reached a decision on expanding her injunction against enforcement of the rule nationally before it goes into effect in September. I agree with the comments made by my partner Mark Goldstein to the New York Times: “The writing is on the wall there. I have never seen a court issue a preliminary injunction and then, absent some extremely unusual circumstances, issue a final decision that wasn’t consistent with the preliminary injunction.”

I applaud the decision. As I wrote in May,  I believe this decision and the expected final decision in August  – should that occur – is good for radiology groups, making them stronger. (That opinion is my own and not that of Reed Smith LLP.)