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The U.S. Supreme Court began its new term this week and is taking cases government enforcement practitioners will want to follow. Specifically, the Court will address issues concerning: the interplay between SEC administrative proceedings and the right to a jury trial; the amount of authority Congress can permissibly delegate to the SEC; who bears the […]
The Supreme Court agreed to consider the legality of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s use of in-house tribunals, setting up a decision next term that could alter how U.S. securities laws are enforced. In an order list on Friday, the high court said it would hear the Biden administration’s appeal of a May 2022 lower-court […]
One question is: If you buy stock in a direct listing, and the stock drops and you have complaints about the company’s disclosure, do you get to sue under section 11 (because it’s basically an IPO), or do you have to sue under section 10 (because it is not actually an IPO)? Slack Technologies Inc. went public through a […]
Although the Supreme Court in Cochran decided merely a procedural question of federal court jurisdiction, it may open the floodgates to collateral attacks by respondents to pending administrative proceedings and mire the SEC in litigation. As such, Cochran represents another lost battle in the SEC’s ongoing war to preserve its administrative proceedings against constitutional challenges […]
Gottlieb said crypto companies may try to hold off the SEC using the U.S. Supreme Court’s “major questions doctrine,” which holds that regulators can’t exceed their authority. The high court last used the doctrine in 2022 in a 6-3 decision involving the Environmental Protection Agency on whether it had the authority to issue an emissions […]
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 […]
In an historic ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning held that Texas Accountant Michelle Cochran has the right to challenge the constitutionality of her Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ) removal protections in federal court before undergoing an administrative adjudication. Writing unanimously for the Court, Justice Kagan’s opinion stated, “The statutory review schemes set out in […]
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in its first-ever crypto-related case on Tuesday, when lawyers for San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase will attempt to convince the nine Justices to pause a pair of class-action lawsuits against the crypto exchange. Though the case the high court will hear Tuesday involves crypto, it is not itself […]
The biggest issues stem from efforts by the Securities and Exchange Commission to classify cryptoassets as securities, putting them under the federal regulator’s purview. Although the SEC has won some early battles, it could get more skepticism once it reaches the Supreme Court, which has repeatedly curbed the power of federal regulatory agencies. “Eventually, one […]
The Fifth Circuit ruled incorrectly in finding the SEC’s use of executive-branch judges unconstitutional, the agency said in a petition asking the US Supreme Court for review. At issue is a challenge by investment adviser George Jarkesy to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s determination that he couldn’t participate in certain securities activities and had to […]