Quick Guide to Administrative Hearings
DOGE Part 2: What will it do?
DOGE: What exactly is it and how will it work?
Podcast - Supreme Court Upholds CFPB Funding Structure
The Justice Insiders Podcast: SEC Plays Chicken with Jarkesy
Podcast: Non-binding Guidance: A Discussion of Kisor v. Wilkie
In issuing a preliminary injunction in Space Exploration Technologies Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, No. 24-50627 (5th Cir. 2025), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the structure of the...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
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2023, agreed to hear the case of SEC v. Jarkesy.1 The case is an appeal of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit decision that held that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's...more
On April 14, 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States opened the door for new challenges to the federal administrative state. In a unanimous decision in a pair of consolidated cases, Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. Federal Trade...more
In Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC and SEC v. Cochran, the respondents in administrative agency enforcement actions brought suit in federal district court, challenging the constitutionality of each respective agency’s attempt to...more
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in two related cases, Axon Enterprise Inc. v. FTC (No. 21-86) and SEC v. Cochran (No. 21-1239), that federal district courts have jurisdiction to hear structural constitutional challenges to the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that parties seeking to challenge the constitutionality of the structure of the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission cannot be required to raise such...more
Consistent with federal courts’ recent pattern of limiting the reach of administrative agencies, the Supreme Court held on April 14, 2023, that a challenge to the constitutional authority of an administrative law judge...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 14, 2023, issued a unanimous opinion holding that federal district courts can consider constitutional challenges to administrative proceedings before such agencies issue final rulings. In Axon...more
While the substantial backlog of decisions has many observers waiting for a flood of rulings, the Supreme Court is moving at its own pace. Thus, the Court has issued a single opinion today, but especially for readers who are...more
The Supreme Court held today that constitutional challenges to administrative agencies’ structure can be brought in federal district court and need not be raised through an administrative proceeding with subsequent appellate...more
On May 18, 2022, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in Jarkesy v. SEC, vacating a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision in an enforcement action brought as an administrative...more
In 1984, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that courts must defer to an administrative agency’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute. But last year, the Supreme Court stripped the FTC of its ability to seek...more
On January 3, 2020, Axon Enterprises Inc. filed a complaint against the Federal Trade Commission in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona challenging the constitutionality of the FTC’s administrative...more
After much anticipation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC or Commission) Administrative Law Judges (ALJs)....more
In one of its last opinions of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Lucia v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on June 21, 2018, that administrative law judges (ALJs) are officers of the United States, not...more
Orrick's Andrew Morris and Ben Aiken co-authored an article for Law360 in which they identify three of the most significant defense arguments for respondents in SEC administrative actions in light of the Supreme Court's...more
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Lucia v. SEC to resolve the federal circuit court split on whether the SEC’s administrative law judges (ALJs) are "inferior officers" of the United States who must be...more
On June 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court resolved a circuit split on the question of whether administrative law judges (“ALJs”) of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”) qualify as...more
In its June 21 decision in Lucia v. Securities & Exchange Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that administrative law judges (ALJs) used by the SEC are “Officers of the United States” under the Appointments Clause in...more
On June 21, 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lucia et al. v. Securities and Exchange Commission, [1] that the appointment of certain administrative law judges (“ALJs”) was unconstitutional, and that those with matters...more
On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court in Raymond J. Lucia, et al. v. SEC, held that the SEC’s administrative law judges are “Officers of the United States” whose appointment must comport with the requirements of the...more
On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States invalidated the process that the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") had been using to appoint administrative law judges. Staff from the SEC had selected...more
In Lucia v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Justice Elena Kagan, writing for a six-justice majority, presents the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision as both narrow and uncomplicated. “The sole question” the court chose to...more
• SEC ALJs are “Officers of the United States” within the meaning of the Appointments Clause and therefore must be appointed directly by the SEC. The Court’s decision may permit litigants in prior and pending administrative...more