Subscribe
‘Enforcement 40’ for 2020
Our Sponsors
Join Us On LinkedIn
Join the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Group on LinkedInU.S. Supreme Court to hear SEC bid to avoid challenge to in-house judges | Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the Securities and Exchange Commission’s bid to block a challenge to the constitutionality of its in-house tribunal brought by a Texas accountant who the agency punished after faulting her audits of publicly traded companies. The justices took up the SEC’s appeal of a lower court ruling […]
Chief Administrative Law Judge Brenda Murray to Retire
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Chief Administrative Law Judge Brenda Murray is retiring after 50 years of federal service, including 25 years as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the SEC. via SEC.gov | Chief Administrative Law Judge Brenda Murray to Retire.
ANALYSIS: Lack of Removal Power Could Threaten SEC ALJ Regime
Are the job security provisions enjoyed by SEC administrative law judges unconstitutional? The Supreme Court majority kicked that question down the line in its 2018 Lucia v. SEC decision. The Fifth Circuit may just have picked it up, as a three-judge panel enjoined an administrative rehearing of a pre-Lucia accounting violations case against Michelle Cochran. […]
SEC’s In-House Judge System Denies Access to Juries | ThinkAdvisor
Unless the Supreme Court or Congress intervenes, some SEC defendants will have access to federal court juries and some will not despite similar allegations and punishments put forth by the SEC. via SEC’s In-House Judge System Denies Access to Juries | ThinkAdvisor.
The SEC ALJs: A Six-Month Checkup | Bloomberg Law
The existential threat to administrative enforcement has largely devolved into a bureaucratic annoyance since last June. While another Supreme Court securities enforcement decision, Kokesh v. SEC, fundamentally changed the way the SEC selects cases to prosecute, Lucia has basically become a problem of resource allocation that will eventually fade into the sunset as the remanded […]
S.E.C. Will Rehear Dozens of Cases After Supreme Court Ruling – The New York Times
The Securities and Exchange Commission said it would rehear dozens of cases recently brought before its in-house judges, in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling that the judges had not been properly appointed. Lawyers for the commission said in a court filing late Wednesday that the agency had reaffirmed the appointments of the same five […]
Supreme Court Finds SEC ALJs are Inferior Officers Subject to the Requirements of the Appointments Clause | Ideas | Baker Botts LLP
In a much-anticipated opinion issued last Thursday, the United States Supreme Court resolved a circuit-court split, holding that the administrative law judges (“ALJs”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the “Commission”) are “officers” subject to the requirements of the Appointments Clause of Article II of the U.S. Constitution. Reversing the Court of Appeals […]
Lucia: The Beginning of the End of SEC ALJ?
The Supreme Court resolved the question of whether SEC ALJs must be appointed in accord with the Constitution’s Appointments Clause, holding that their retention is subject to the provision. Thus the Court held that Petitioner Raymond J. Lucia is entitled to a new hearing before a different ALJ appointed in accord with the Constitution. Raymond […]
House Republicans Lay Into SEC Enforcement Chiefs Over In-House Judges
“Since we’ve been in this job, which has now been just about a year, the circumstances in which we’ve filed litigation actions as administrative proceedings have been fairly limited,” Avakian said. “And I would say broadly they’ve been limited to circumstances where either the charges that we’re pursuing are only available in the administrative forum, […]
SEC fine of radio presenter puts watchdog on the line
On April 23, the US Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments about whether the Securities and Exchange Commission’s cadre of in-house judges exists in violation of the constitution. Rather than deliberate on some esoteric administrative foible with little consequence, America’s highest court is about to decide an issue that could dramatically change how justice […]