2024 Supreme Court Decisions That Could Affect Your Business: Part One
There are three 2024 Supreme Court decisions that affect business owners, in my opinion.
The case I tackle today is going to take a little explaining, if you’re down to learn about how ambiguous laws work.
The other two (tackled later in this series) have to do with censorship on social media over the last couple of years, and what the courts (and THE Court) had to say about it.
This is NOT law school, and I’m NOT about to write you a legal brief.
I’m just breaking down the need-to-know.
I’m Maria Spear Ollis, aka The Lunar Lawyer, and I’m going to shine some light on three 2024 Supreme Court decisions that could affect your business.
In this post, I’m tackling the first one: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
Changes in who gets to interpret the law and what that means for your business 👩⚖️
The TL;DR of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo is this:
The Old Way: When a statute is ambiguous, courts looked to the related federal agency’s interpretation of that law for guidance.
The New Way, post-Loper: When a statute is ambiguous, the courts look at things like the “legislative history” (history of the creation of that law), legal precedent, other courts’ interpretations of that law, etc. to determine how that law should be interpreted…basically do what judges do.
Why Everyone Is Freaking Out: The freak out is because some people think that the new way gives “lawmaking” powers to judges, and that the judiciary branch shouldn’t have this power.
Social studies throwback: separation of powers
Hey, maybe you haven’t thought about this since eighth grade. Don’t worry. I’ve got you.
We have three branches of government, right?
📝 The legislative branch (congress, senate). They create the law.
👩⚖️ The judiciary branch (judges), who interpret the law; and
🇺🇸 The executive branch (the president and, by extension, federal agencies). They, well, “execute” on the law and make decisions based on the law. Maybe you didn’t know that federal agencies are actually part of that executive branch. They are!
(This is important, and you’ll see why in a minute.)
Who cares and how this affects your business
People who are pro-”old way” are very, very worried that this gives non-elected federal judges too much power. They say that agencies are much better equipped at explaining ambiguities in the law and the nuances of their niche.
But this is something that IP lawyers (hi, it me) have always had to do.
How many judges do you think are well-versed in copyright, trademark, or gasp the nuances of having an online business!?
Half of my closest friends don’t understand the ins and outs of lead magnets, funnels, and click-through rates.
And for what it’s worth… federal judges are appointed. The heads of federal agencies are appointed. So… there’s room for imbalance and bias either way, IMO.
Here’s why I think this affects your business.
I think this decision makes it that much more important to make sure the legal team on your side intimately knows the details of your industry and how it works. That way, if push came to shove, the judge will be very well informed in his or her decision-making.
And here’s a real-life example.
Earlier this spring, the FTC shocked us all by basically banning non-compete agreements. This is already being challenged in the courts.
So let’s say the FTC relied on a statute that’s fairly ambiguous when it issued this ban.
What changes now is that if the non-compete rule is challenged in the courts, the courts do not have to defer to the FTC’s interpretation of that rule. Instead, the judge will go through the ordinary process of looking at past precedent, looking at the history of the creation of the statute, and hear arguments from both sides as to how the ambiguous law should be interpreted. (And why.)
Next in 2024 Supreme Court Cases…
Check out my next post in this series where I’ll explain what the heck is happening in two (!) cases related to covid-era censorship on social media.
“I want to establish rules for the things I’m creating and selling online!”
Pshhhh. I got you. 😉 ⬇️
Look no further than my madlibs-style contract apothecary! There, you’ll find things like the Website Protection Bundle for less than the price of your Netflix + YouTube TV Subscription.
Filling out your policies can be as easy as answering a few multiple choice questions.