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Comment by cyrnel | Hacker News Reader

This judge did actually rule that it was "arbitrary and capricious". Which is rich considering the FTC published a 500+ page document explaining their exact reasoning, including analysis of public comments, their legal authority, alternatives, and studies about the effects of non-compete bans in specific states.

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> This judge did actually rule that it was "arbitrary and capricious".

That's not a policy judgement is a procedural one. Its not "it should not be done", but "the FTC did not do what is substantively required in assessing the facts and applying the law".

I'm not saying it is right, I am saying "arbitrary and capricious" is specifically a procedural finding in federal administrative law.

Jumping through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops and writing a 500 page report doesn't make you right.

Agreed. However, it makes it easier to succeed in appealing a ruling calling it “arbitrary and capricious”.

Does it? To me, a 500 page report makes it more likely to be arbitrary. A non-arbitrary decision should be much more easily justified. A 500 page justification on its face seems like trying to bury the opposition in paperwork because your actual justification is vaporware.

This is common in legal arguments. You want to make your case as airtight as possible. Keep in mind that there is tons of space per page; not a dense essay.

Mathematical proofs are similar, rarely limited to a page. You want to leave little room for doubt.

No, page count is not a relevant metric for whether the applicable standard is met.

Hard to call it “arbitrary and capricious” with a straight face though

It is easy if you don't read any of the 500 pages and are simply incentivized (directly or not) and want to block the elimination of non-competes.

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