The SEC's commissioners, who heard the initial appeal of Elliot's 2013 ruling, previously held the in-house judges were not inferior officers because they issued non-final decisions subject to commission review.
But Matheson said that fact "does not transform them into lesser functionaries."
In a dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Monroe McKay expressed concern the "sweeping" holding had "effectively rendered invalid thousands of administrative actions" through its potential impact on in-house judges at agencies beyond the SEC.
The case is Bandimere v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 15-9586.
This article was provided by Reuters.