Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Christopher M. Gibson v. Securities and Exchange Commission, et al.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 19-11969 · judgment December 30, 2019
Before the decision, about 4× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a circuit split argued in the petition, and a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition).
Question presented
Since the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has brought an increasing number of enforcement actions before the agency itself, rather than in federal court. The SEC routinely delegates its authority to preside over these actions to its own cadre of administrative law judges (ALJs). Because these ALJs exercise “significant authority,” they are “‘Officers of the United States’” for purposes of the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. Lucia v. SEC, 138 S. Ct. 2044, 2051-55 (2018) (quoting U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2). For individuals subject to SEC enforcement proceedings, the ALJs’ actions and findings can have significant, often life-ruining consequences. The SEC’s ALJs, however, suffer from a blatant constitutional defect: they are insulated from removal by multiple “layers of good-cause tenure” protection, which this Court found “incompatible with the Constitution’s separation of powers” in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Co. Accounting Oversight Board, 561 U.S. 477, 497-98 (2010). The ALJs’ actions also are subject to the same administrative review scheme that the Court held in Free Enterprise Fund did not “expressly” or “implicitly” strip federal district courts of their usual jurisdiction to adjudicate federal “separation-of-powers claim[s].” Id. at 489-91 & n.2; see 28 U.S.C. § 1331. The question presented is: Whether Congress has implicitly stripped federal district courts of jurisdiction to adjudicate separationof-powers challenges to the authority of SEC ALJs to preside over enforcement proceedings.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Gregory George Garre
Latham & Watkins LLP
For respondent
Jeffrey B. Wall
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Case
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Amicus briefs
5 cert-stage
Proceedings
- Jan 11 2021Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Pacific Legal Foundation GRANTED.
- Jan 11 2021Petition DENIED.
- Dec 23 2020DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/8/2021.
- Dec 21 2020Reply of petitioner Christopher Gibson filed. (Distributed)
- Dec 04 2020Brief of respondents Securities and Exchange Commission, et al. in opposition filed.
- Nov 05 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including December 4, 2020.
- Nov 04 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response from November 4, 2020 to December 4, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
- Oct 06 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including November 4, 2020.
- Oct 05 2020Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 5, 2020 to November 4, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
- Oct 05 2020Motion for leave to file amicus brief filed by Pacific Legal Foundation.
- Oct 05 2020Motion of Pacific Legal Foundation for leave to file amicus brief not accepted for filing. (October 08, 2020)
- Oct 05 2020Brief amicus curiae of George R. Jarkesy, Jr. filed.
- Oct 05 2020Brief amicus curiae of Southeastern Legal Foundation filed.
- Oct 05 2020Brief amici curiae of The Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America filed.
- Oct 02 2020Brief amicus curiae of Americans for Prosperity Foundation filed.
- Oct 01 2020Brief amicus curiae of Atlantic Legal Foundation filed.
- Sep 16 2020Blanket Consent filed by Petitioner, Christopher Gibson
- Aug 31 2020Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 5, 2020)