I appreciate your comments from a legal perspective. I have a point of view but I don't have a lick of legal knowledge. I have a broad perspective that American citizens should have the ability to move freely as they choose.
Would you be willing to post the simple legal perspective from a pro and con point of view? I'm interested in learning. Thanks much.
Well, I generally agree with you, actually.
From a philosophical perspective, I think the benefits for workers of free movement (and wage competition) far outweigh the cons for businesses.
Some business owners would argue that noncompetes help to avoid situations where one employer essentially "trains" an employee (presumably at a bit of a financial loss from a money in/out perspective), and then the employee just leaves to go to the competitor across the street. I think that in
some niche businesses or situations, this could be a concern, but imo it's more of an issue with a business model rather than an issue with noncompetes.
From a legal perspective, the question is whether or not the FTC, an executive branch agency, has the authority to ban noncompetes on the whole. The people opposed to the new rule will argue that the only entity which has the power to make that type of action would be the congress, through the commerce clause (and arguably, they would say that there
isn't even authority under the commerce clause, but that's a whole other issue).
I'm guessing that activist groups opposed probably already have some potential plaintiffs ready to go.