SEC Would Like To Keep Its In-House Judges, Please

The home-field advantage has been good to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Who could object to this sight?

The SEC boasts an impressively higher batting average in bludgeoning accused wrongdoers at home than on the road. So it is understandably perturbed that at least one federal judge thinks Congress may have gone a bit far by giving the agency home-field advantage more or less whenever it wants it.

A pivotal decision came June 8 from U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in Atlanta, who issued an injunction on the SEC's administrative case against Charles Hill, an Atlanta real estate developer accused of insider trading, saying that he had a “substantial likelihood of success” of making the unconstitutional argument stick because the in-house judges are essentially hired by the SEC instead of following the U.S. Constitution's appointments clause. “This likely appointment clause violation goes to the validity of the (administrative) proceeding,” Ms. May said….

SEC lawyers appealed Ms. May's decision on June 24, and asked the court to lift the injunction, arguing that it “interferes with the SEC's ability to enforce” securities laws.

SEC on defensive following setback on use of hearings [P&I]

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