Aerospace Execs Fail to Shake DOJ’s No-Poach Criminal Case

A group of aerospace executives failed to get a federal court to dismiss the Justice Department’s no-poach charges against them, a ruling that affirms antitrust regulators’ novel approach to labor antitrust law.

The Justice Department’s antitrust division plausibly argued that an agreement between a former manager of a “major” aerospace engineering company and five current and former executives of the company’s engineering suppliers—to refrain from hiring each other’s workers—inherently violated the Sherman Act, Judge Victor A. Bolden of the US District Court for the District of Connecticut said Dec. 2 in denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss.

The company was ...