The Constitution’s checks and balances are not dead yet. Many federal agencies have taken to imposing fines without a jury trial. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled that this violates the Seventh Amendment. The court also held that senior federal bureaucrats need to be accountable to the president. The media have reacted with apoplexy, but this ruling restores constitutional checks to an increasingly unaccountable administrative state.
The Seventh Amendment guarantees Americans a right to a jury trial “in suits at common law”— for example, charges of fraud. However, federal agencies often prosecute such cases before “administrative law judges.” Despite their name, ALJs are executive branch officers, not judges under Article III of the Constitution. ALJs do not use juries, and agencies do very well before these in-house judges. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission wins 9 in 10 cases before its ALJs.
