Does the phrase “permanent injunction” actually mean “monetary damages?”
No, it doesn’t. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled as much in a recent victory for both the rule of law and the English language.
The case before the Court involved §13(b) of the Federal Trade Commission Act. For decades, the FTC relied upon this section, which by its text empowers it to seek permanent injunctions against accused parties, to also seek monetary damages against them—a power that the section does not explicitly grant. Doing so allowed the FTC to skirt administrative procedural protections for accused parties and to pre-emptively seize their assets before any finding of wrongdoing.
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