Premium Only Content

How the SEC and FTC Stack the Deck in Their Favor with ALJs
Agencies wield tremendous power over almost all aspects of American life, enacting thousands of regulations every year that have the force of law. Many agencies, like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), use agency employees with the title of “administrative law judge" (ALJ) to enforce this staggering edifice of agency-made rules. These are not impartial Article III judges, but agency enforcers with an intractable bias in favor of their employer.
Under these circumstances, the process is the punishment. Agency enforcement can be brutal, often destroying the lives, reputations, and businesses of enforcement targets long before any wrongdoing is ever established. Further, in-house adjudication—where your judge’s boss is also your prosecutor—confers an staggering homecourt advantage for agencies (90% for SEC and 100% for FTC).
In 2016-17, Michelle Cochran endured one such administrative trial and was facing a second still-unconstitutional proceeding after the Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that the first judge had not been constitutionally appointed.
Her suit in federal court—and a later suit by Axon—raised the question: Who decides constitutional questions? Should it be unaccountable ALJs insulated from removal whose very competence to adjudicate is at issue, or Senate-confirmed Article III judges making an unbiased review of the constitutionality of the proceeding before it takes place?
For years, Michelle Cochran and Axon Enterprise Inc. fought to have that question answered all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
Website: https://nclalegal.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewCivilLibertiesAlliance
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NCLAlegal
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ncla-legal/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nclalegal/
-
1:43
New Civil Liberties Alliance
1 year ago $0.01 earnedMark Chenoweth at FedSoc Fireside Chat with FTC Chair Lina Kahn
871 -
LIVE
The Shannon Joy Show
1 hour ago🔥🔥Trump To Pardon Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs? Live Exclusive with Child Sex Trafficking Expert & Advocate Dani Pinter! 🔥🔥
151 watching -
LIVE
Trumpet Daily
36 minutes agoTrumpet Daily LIVE - July 31, 2025
412 watching -
LIVE
LFA TV
14 hours agoLFA TV ALL DAY STREAM - THURSDAY 7/31/25
4,642 watching -
LIVE
JuicyJohns
4 hours ago $1.57 earned🟢#1 REBIRTH PLAYER 10.2+ KD🟢$500 GIVEAWAY SATURDAY!
117 watching -
43:09
VINCE
3 hours agoSPECIAL: "Obamagate" DEEP-DIVE with Gen. Mike Flynn, Mike Benz and Paul Sperry
87.1K72 -
LIVE
The Big Mig™
4 hours agoFBI Burn Bags, Hidden SCIF’s & Truth About Mar-A-Lago Raid
5,199 watching -
1:50:11
Dear America
4 hours agoFBI Discovers THOUSANDS Russia Hoax Docs In “Burn Bags”!! + Pelosi EXPOSED For Insider Trading!!
103K78 -
1:27:12
Tucker Carlson
3 hours agoTony Aguilar Details the War Crimes He’s Witnessing in Gaza
71.6K145 -
2:04:06
Badlands Media
6 hours agoBadlands Daily: July 31, 2025
38.1K8