placed new restrictions on the ability of federal agencies to charge a person or company with a violation, and to adjudicate that violation if the punishment includes monetary fines.
The decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy is the latest in a string of cases where the court has pared back the power of federal agencies. Limiting the ability of agencies to issue regulations and, now, prosecute certain legal offenses is a hallmark of the court’s nearly four-year-old conservative supermajority.This case came about after the SEC charged conservative radio host George Jarkesy Jr.
In response, Jarkesy sued, claiming that the agency’s ability to both charge him and conduct an administrative judicial proceeding violated his Seventh Amendment right to a trial by jury.written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court ruled that when the agency sought civil penalties for alleged fraud, the defendant was entitled to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment.
“This case poses a straightforward question: whether the Seventh Amendment entitles a defendant to a jury trial when the SEC seeks civil penalties against him for securities fraud,” Roberts wrote. “The threshold issue is whether this action implicates the Seventh Amendment. It does. The SEC’s antifraud provisions replicate common law fraud, and it is well established that common law claims must be heard by a jury.