The conservative justices of the Supreme Court signaled Wednesday that they could soon make good on a key part of the conservative agenda to begin to dismantle the administrative state. But after hours of oral arguments Wednesday in SEC v. Jarkesy, the conservative majority appeared ready to rule on relatively narrow grounds.
It’s unlikely that the eventual ruling will be a huge win for far-right conservatives who wish to eviscerate the administrative state as we know it.
It seems likely the court will reduce the Securities and Exchange Commission’s options to bring enforcement actions, forcing it to bring most actions before a district court, instead of administrative law judges who are specialists in financial regulations. In doing so it will most likely require the SEC to pick and choose which cases are bad enough to bring to a district judge. It’s unlikely, though, that the eventual ruling will be a huge win for some far-right conservatives who wish to eviscerate the administrative state as we know it.
The administrative state refers to executive branch agencies that, among other things, set standards for workplace safety and create environmental regulations and regulation of financial markets. Conservatives who’ve long had these agencies in their crosshairs argue that Congress has placed too much power in unelected and therefore unaccountable bureaucrats. Progressives, by contrast, typically argue that the administrative state is the manifestation of a functioning government, as the agencies that comprise the administrative state exist to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public.
This case the Supreme Court heard Wednesday began 10 years ago when the SEC, in an administrative proceeding against hedge fund founder and conservative talk radio host George Jarkesy, found that Jarkesy defrauded investors. The SEC imposed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines on him. Jarkesy fought back by arguing that, as a constitutional matter,…
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