The US Supreme Court’s decision allowing the FTC and SEC’s in-house litigation defendants to sue the regulators is the latest dent in the continued attenuation of federal agencies’ enforcement powers.
The unanimous ruling Friday in a pair of combined cases, Axon Enterprise v. FTC and SEC v. Cochran, allows the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement targets to challenge the agencies’ constitutional authority in federal district court without waiting for an in-house judge’s decision, as has been required for decades.
The change will likely invite a wave of constitutional challenges against two of the most powerful regulators and other federal agencies with a similar structure.
Source: Federal Agencies Face Constitutional Fights After High Court Loss