Supreme Court limits SEC's powers to impose fines

[sl8]

https://www.npr.org/2024/06/27/g-s1-2548/supreme-court-sec

Supreme Court limits SEC's powers to impose fines

JUNE 27, 202410:40 AM ET
Nina Totenberg

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote, declared unconstitutional the way the Securities and Exchange Commission imposes fines for fraudulent conduct and requires that wrongdoers give back their ill-gotten gains.

Writing for the court majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the use of administrative law judges to make factual findings and legal conclusions deprives accused wrongdoers of their Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.

The court’s decision could have huge ripple effects on dozens of agencies that use ALJs to make factual and legal findings on everything from labor rights to mine safety and energy regulation.

Ironically, the agency is likely to suffer fewer consequences, largely because the Supreme Court, beginning in 2018, began eating away at the agency’s power to use administrative law judges, and the agency, in response, decreased the number of ALJ’s at the agency from six to two, choosing instead to bring its cases mainly in federal court.

[...]

[underpants]

1. Week in review - bribes/paybacks ✅ scamming/lying/theft ✅

[flying_wahini]

2. What the difference between an ALJ and a regular one?

[sl8]

3. I don't know much about them, but here's Cornell's blurb:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/administrative_law_judge_(alj)

administrative law judge (ALJ)

Administrative law judges (ALJ) (not administrative judges) are executive judges for official and unofficial hearings of administrative disputes in the Federal government. Because they only hear administrative law issues as designated in the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (APA), administrative law judges are considered part of the executive branch, not the judicial branch, and ALJs are appointed by the heads of the executive agencies. However, administrative law judges receive much of the same protections as those in the judicial branch in order to preserve their neutrality such as not being subject to bonuses or ranking systems of executive agencies. ALJs carry out determinations on both questions of fact and questions of law, like bench trials for judicial proceedings, and they have the authority to issue subpoenas, administer oaths, and issue rulings.

Given the broad scope of administrative law, ALJs participate in many different topics and for many different agencies such as the Social Security Administration (SSA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Postal Service. The determinations of an ALJ may be appealed potentially even to a federal judicial court. However, essentially every agency has its own appellate processes of review that must be followed before someone can access the federal courts, and sometimes in large agencies, the agency’s internal review process can be quite extensive.

ALJs do not serve the same role as administrative judges. While similar in name to ALJs, administrative judges can only participate in unofficial disputes of executive agencies which constitute the majority of administrative disputes. Only ALJs can hear official disputes heard by the agencies. Further, administrative judges are directly hired by the agencies and are subject to their employment rules and benefits, unlike the independent ALJ judges.

Many states also have ALJs that serve similar roles as their Federal counterparts. The rules and nature of ALJs vary by state on levels of neutrality, procedure, and jurisdiction.

[flying_wahini]

4. So it's more like the top official at each Federal agency.

But the last line got me.
“…. AJL’s vary by state on levels of neutrality, procedure and jurisdiction.”

Like DeJoy and the Post Office?

[Igel]

5. No, since they vary by state these are state-level ALJs. n/t

[Igel]

6. A few.

You don't appeal to another court, you appeal to an administrator. The prosecutor and the ALJ ultimately answer to the same person.

No right to a jury trial.

Usually no such thing as a public defender, for jurisdictions that have them.

Different rules of evidence and criteria for conviction.

Now, there's also no chance of jail time, since it's an administrative offense and not a criminal offense.

There are more, those are the ones I've seen and remember.

[Hekate]

7. KnR. Supreme Court limits SEC's powers to impose fines