Stephen McCarthy v. Drug Enforcement Administration

Structural error and remedy after Collins. This Court's precedents treat structural defects in agency adjudications—such as Appointments Clause violations—as warranting automatic or strongly presumptive relief, including a new hearing before a proper adjudicator, without a '/ ft y < granular showing that the outcome would have differed. See Lucia v. SEC’ 585 U.S. 237 7 . ; (2018); Ryder v. United States, 515 U.S. 177 (1995). After Collins v. Yellen, 594U.S? 220 (2021), some courts now require litigants challenging ALJ removal protections to prove that the unconstitutional insulation caused a different outcome in their specific case before any relief is available. In the adjudicatory context, where evidence of such a causal chain is effectively inaccessible, does Article II permit courts to deny any remedy for an unconstitutional multilevel removal scheme absent outcome-determinative proof of harm, or should prejudice be presumed (or assessed under a lower "realistic possibility" standard with the burden on the Government) in ALJ-removal cases seeking a new hearing as the remedy? Relying on Collins as interpreted in NLRB v. Starbucks Corp., 125 F.4th 78 (3d Cir. 2024), and CFPB v. National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust, 96 F.4th 599 (3d Cir. 2024), the Third Circuit held that Petitioner "cannot bring" a removal-protection challenge at all unless he first shows a "causal link" between the removal defect and an actual injury. Did the court err by treating Collins's harm discussion as a threshold bar to even raising a structural Article II claim, rather than as a remedial question once a violation is found?

Sanction and public interest. DEA revoked Petitioner's registration as inconsistent with the public interest based on brief lapses in a state-law supervision-agreement requirement, without findings of diversion, abuse, or actual patient harm, and despite evidence that Petitioner provides specialized psychiatric care not easily replaced. The Third Circuit affirmed,