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SCOTUS Decision on Administrative Agency Powers

June 28, 2024

Jill Fisch
Jill Fisch

Prof. Jill E. Fisch calls the SEC v. Jarkesy decision a “narrow ruling that does not broadly jeopardize administrative agency power.”

In SEC v. Jarkesy, the Supreme Court ruled against the Securities and Exchange Commission in finding that when the agency seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial.

Jill E. Fisch, Saul A. Fox Distinguished Professor of Business Law and Co-Director of the Institute for Law & Economics, said:

This decision looks consistent with the tenor of the questioning during oral argument. It is therefore not particularly surprising. It is also a narrow ruling that does not broadly jeopardize administrative agency power, especially since the SEC has brought most of these cases, at least recently, in Article III courts anyway.

Fisch is an internationally known scholar whose work focuses on the intersection of business and law, including the role of regulation and litigation in addressing limitations in the disciplinary power of the capital markets.

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