An Atlanta federal judge ruled in June that the SEC probably overstepped its constitutional authority by tapping an in-house administrative judge to preside over an insider-trading case. SEC judges hear hundreds of cases a year. A determination that they were improperly appointed might call into question their decisions as well as rulings by administrative judges throughout the U.S. government.
The five SEC hearing officers are part of a much larger pool of almost 1,700 administrative judges working in 26 federal departments and agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the International Trade Commission, according to the Federal Administrative Law Judges Conference. Most of them -- 1,449 as of last year -- hear Social Security cases.
The cases are: Duka v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 15-cv-00357, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan); Tilton v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 15-2103, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan).