A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit grappled with the authority of the SEC judges, who handle administrative matters and contested enforcement actions. The petitioner argues that the in-house judges are “officers of the United States” who should be appointed by the agency’s commissioners and not hired by another agency office.
As the SEC increasingly takes enforcement actions to in-house judges, rather than federal district judges, the authority of these judges and agency accountability for them faces new scrutiny.
via D.C. Circuit Tackles the Role of SEC Law Judges | New York Law Journal
