With an briefs due on March 26 in the Ryan appeal and April 7 in the Properties of the Villages appeal, on March 7, 2025, the FTC filed a Motion to Hold Appeal in Abeyance for 120 Days in both cases.
Not surprisingly, Ryan LLC (and the US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and other plaintiff-intervenors) and The Properties of the Villages, Inc. assented.
The rationale for the FTC’s motion is as follows:
Following a change in administration, on January 20, 2025, President Trump designated Commissioner Andrew N. Ferguson as Chairman of the Commission. Chairman Ferguson has recently stated publicly that he believes the Commission should reconsider its defense of the challenged rule: “My view is that the Commission . . . basically needs to decide whether it’s a good idea [and] it’s in the public interest to continue defending this rule. . . . I’m going to be presenting at some point” to “my colleagues the decision about whether to continue defending this Rule.” The Harvard Salient, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson & Harvard Law Professor Adrian Vermueule: CORE Conference 2025, at 35:17-:40, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty3s- zjLQFk.
In light of the foregoing, the government respectfully moves to hold this appeal in abeyance for 120 days. An abeyance will conserve party and judicial resources and promote the efficient and orderly disposition of this appeal. The government respectfully proposes that, at the end of a 120-day abeyance period, the government can provide the Court with a status report regarding future steps in the case.
Of course, during that 120-day period, we can expect that the 5th FTC Commissioner will be appointed and will vote with Chair Ferguson and Commissioner Holyoak to dismiss the appeals.
Stay tuned.
*Shout out to Law360’s Jared Foretek, Dorothy Atkins, Lauren Berg, Bryan Koenig, and Kristen Becker for discovering the filings so quickly.
Firm resources:
We know how hard it is to keep up with the ever-changing laws and requirements around the country for how you can protect your trade secrets, customer goodwill, and the integrity of your workforce. To help, we have created the resources below (available for free). Each chart is regularly updated to reflect the latest developments.
 | 50-State Noncompete Law Chart, the first of its kind and regularly updated (downloadable PDF) (to be updated for the new exemptions in Illinois and Pennsylvania)50-State and Federal Trade Secret Law Chart, providing a comparison of the trade secrets laws nationally to the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (downloadable PDF) | |
 | Chart of Noncompete “Low-Wage” Thresholds and Criteria (downloadable) | |
 | Notice requirements summary chart, providing details for each of the 8 states (plus D.C.) that has notice requirements related to noncompetes (downloadable PDF) | |
 | “Changing Trade Secrets | Noncompete Laws” (dedicated blog page) now provides a current detailed summary of the changing landscape of trade secret laws and noncompete laws around the country, state by state and at the federal level |
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 | Trade secret and other legitimate business interest protection plan strategy and checklist |
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We hope you find all of these resources useful. More will be coming.
And please note, we are grateful for all of the input we’ve received over the years. We welcome any suggestions for improvements that you may be willing to share.