The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in Axon Enterprise v. Federal Trade Commission, a legal dispute brought by the creators of Tasers and other law enforcement equipment against the antitrust enforcement of the agency.
Justices subsequently heard arguments in a similar case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Cochran, about securities regulators that challenged federal enforcement agencies’ in-house courts. Agencies including the FTC and the SEC utilize administrative courts that allow agency-employed judges to rule on the legality of mergers or determine punishments over alleged violations of consumer or securities laws.
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Both cases face the question of whether an agency’s enforcement action could challenge its structure or processes in a federal district court or whether it must first go through the agency’s administrative proceeding, also known as administrative law judges.
“The agency can’t help us with that claim,” Paul Clement, Axon Enterprise’s lawyer, told the justices on Monday. “They’re powerless to do anything with that claim, but the district court isn’t.”
Regarding the cases before the high court on Monday, the U.S. government has maintained that courts cannot interfere with agency proceedings.
The Supreme Court is composed of a 6-3 Republican-appointed majority. The supermajority of justices has appeared skeptical in the past regarding the expansion of federal regulatory authority and the Supreme Court’s precedent of permitting judges to give deference to that authority.
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Decisions in both cases, which could come by the end of June, could stack on top of previous rulings by the present slate of justices, who rolled back some facets of agency authority. In June, the high court ruled to limit the Environmental Protection Agency‘s authority to implement broad regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. And in spring 2021, a unanimous court made it more difficult for the FTC to force companies that engage in deceptive business techniques to return any questionable gains to purchasers.
