After several Supreme Court decisions and Executive Orders upended many of the norms governing the relationship between governmental agencies and the constitutional branches, a recent decision by the Federal Deposit Insurance...more
On Feb. 18, 2025, in a case seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the SEC, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a Notice of Change in Position indicating that the DOJ will no longer defend in litigation "the...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is currently facing a growing number of challenges related to the constitutionality of the agency’s structure and operation. One of these challenges was raised by current FTC...more
On December 10, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, sitting in the District of Columbia, ruled that the job protections afforded NLRB Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are unconstitutional because they impede the...more
A government contractor challenged a U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs ("OFCCP") enforcement scheme in federal court as violating the United States Constitution. The contractor...more
Judge Alan Albright of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas issued an order on July 23, 2024, granting Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) motion for a preliminary injunction after...more
SpaceX is challenging whether the National Labor Relations Board should continue to exist as we know it. In two separate lawsuits, the aerospace company has asked a federal court to strike down the agency’s structure as...more
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
At the end of its 2024 term, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down four decisions limiting the power of federal agencies. While none of those decisions involved a labor and employment agency, all of them could transform labor...more
In a much-watched case concerning the administrative state, on June 27, the Supreme Court decided in SEC v. Jarkesy that defendants facing a fraud suit by the SEC have a Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial in an Article...more
An impending Supreme Court decision is poised to transform how the National Labor Relations Board decides cases and may fundamentally alter the course of labor relations as we know it. We predict that a SCOTUS decision to be...more
On November 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission, a case in which the respondents are challenging the constitutionality of the SEC’s use of administrative...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
A panel of the D.C. Circuit recently relied on Lucia and Cochran to enjoin a FINRA regulatory enforcement action pending appeal of an Appointments Clause challenge....more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission, a case with...more
Article I of the U.S. Constitution articulates the fundamental principles that “[a]ll legislative Powers … shall be vested in a Congress,” “[t]he executive Power shall be vested in a President,” and “[t]he judicial Power …...more
In a landmark decision, the Fifth Circuit struck down the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) primary mechanism for enforcing the nation’s securities laws. In Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission, a...more
In a decision that likely will reverberate throughout the administrative state, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently held in Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission...more
When Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, it expanded the SEC’s power to use its in-house administrative forum to bring enforcement actions. Supporters said this change promoted investor protection by giving the SEC a more...more
In Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a remarkable opinion holding numerous aspects of the SEC’s administrative enforcement regime are unconstitutional. The May...more
The Fifth Circuit's opinion creates a circuit split that raises the possibility of a Supreme Court review. On December 13, 2021, the Fifth Circuit issued an en banc opinion in Cochran v. U.S. Securities & Exchange...more
In a long-awaited constitutional decision regarding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today in PHH v. CFPB reversed a prior ruling by a three-judge panel that the CFPB...more
The Supreme Court is considering a cert petition requesting that it hear the Lucia case, which we have blogged about extensively due to its potential impact on the outcome of the PHH case. Significantly, the DOJ recently...more
On November 29, 2017, the U.S. Solicitor General submitted a brief to the United States Supreme Court in Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission, No. 17-130, urging the Court to grant certiorari and resolve a circuit...more
On Thursday, November 30, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) took action to settle an issue that had been impacting its enforcement efforts for some time: whether its administrative law...more