A divided Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated the Securities and Exchange Commission’s use of in-house legal proceedings to discipline those it believes have committed fraud — a blow to the SEC that liberal justices and some outside experts said would significantly curb the enforcement power of a host of other federal agencies.
In a 6-3 ruling that broke along ideological lines, the court said the SEC’s reliance on internal tribunals, rather than federal courts, to bring enforcement actions in securities fraud cases violates the Constitution. The case is the latest in a string of rulings by the high court paring back the powers of the so-called administrative state.
Read more at the Washington Post.