The Crisis of the Administrative State, Part 6

[Valin]

Power Line:

Steven Hayward

June 9, 2015

 

Now this is very interesting:

 

 

Federal Judge Rules SECs In-House Judges Appointment Likely Unconstitutional

 

A federal judge ruled Monday that the Securities and Exchange Commissions use of an in-house judge to preside over an insider-trading case was likely unconstitutional, a potential blow to the agencys controversial use of its internal tribunal.

 

The decision possibly creates a serious headache for the SEC, which is increasingly using its five administrative-law judges to hear its cases, rather than sending them to federal court, legal experts said. Although the ruling was preliminary, and wont necessarily be duplicated in other federal courts, it could have ramifications for other SEC cases and potentially other federal agencies.

 

You may recall that we began this series last month with a look at the problem of how the SECs use of its own judges violates the basic constitutional principle of the separation powers and the old common law maxim that no man shall be a judge in his own case (or Nemo judex in parte sua in Latin, because thats the language God uses in lawgiving mode). As that previous post noted, the SEC had a very high success rate in enforcement actions brought before its own judges. Funny how that works. Not that the SEC is novel in doing this; time once again to remind everyone of Gary Lawsons summary description of this corruption (below).

 

(Snip)