On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research (consolidated with SHLB Coalition v. Consumers’ Research), a case about the role of executive administrative...more
On March 18, President Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The removals of Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter are the latest in a series of executive actions that will...more
3/20/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Government Agencies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Political Parties ,
Precedential Opinion ,
SCOTUS ,
Termination ,
Trump Administration
Last week, President Trump issued two executive orders aimed squarely at upending the long-accepted authority and independence of certain federal agencies. The first order, Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies, derides...more
2/24/2025
/ Administrative Authority ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Government Agencies ,
NLRB ,
OIRA ,
OMB ,
SCOTUS ,
Trump Administration
In a landmark decision issued last week, SEC v. Jarkesy, the Supreme Court held that the Seventh Amendment guarantees a defendant a jury trial when the SEC seeks civil penalties against the defendant for committing securities...more
7/8/2024
/ Administrative Authority ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Administrative Proceedings ,
Article II ,
Article III ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Judicial Authority ,
Jury Trial ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Regulation ,
Seventh Amendment
On February 11, 2024, a new law went into effect in New York, establishing important limits and rules for surcharging. Enacted in December 2023, the new statute has a price disclosure component, detailing how surcharge prices...more
2/26/2024
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Credit Card Surcharges ,
Credit Cards ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
First Amendment ,
Merchants ,
New Guidance ,
New Legislation ,
Pricing ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Surcharges
Last week, the Fifth Circuit handed down an across-the-board rejection of four constitutional challenges raised by gene sequencing company Illumina in defending against the Federal Trade Commission’s merger challenge. Bah!...more
In recent years, independent agencies have continued to face a number of constitutional and statutory challenges before the Supreme Court. AMG Capital Management struck down the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to obtain...more
10/16/2023
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
AMG Capital Management LLC v FTC ,
Article II ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Due Process ,
Equal Protection ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Non-Delegation Doctrine ,
SCOTUS ,
SEC v Jarkesy ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
On October 3, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited, where the Court is reviewing the Fifth Circuit’s opinion that struck...more
10/5/2023
/ Administrative Agencies ,
Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appropriation ,
Chamber of Commerce ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Funding ,
Oral Argument ,
Payday Lending Rule ,
Payday Loans ,
SCOTUS ,
UDAAP
The U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision unanimously reversing the Ninth Circuit in Axon Enterprise v. Federal Trade Commission is likely to represent a monumental shift in pre-enforcement challenges to administrative...more
On February 27, 2023, the Supreme Court granted the certiorari petition of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to hear a case that could cast doubt on all of the regulations that have been promulgated by the...more
If you had asked us last week, we would have predicted that the Supreme Court’s momentous AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC decision last year, in which the Court struck down the Federal Trade Commission’s nearly 50-year...more
1/27/2022
/ Administrative Authority ,
Administrative Procedure ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Certiorari ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Due Process ,
Enforcement Authority ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Judicial Review ,
Jurisdiction ,
SCOTUS