Mr. Buckets Of Money Settles His Case

     Reuters reports that Raymond Lucia of Lucia v. SEC fame has settled his case with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  In the Lucia case, the Supreme Court decided that the constitution requires that Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) be appointed by agency heads. This caused problems at Social Security since its ALJs had not been appointed by the Commissioner of Social Security. That problem has since been rectified but litigation continues in cases decided before the ALJs received their official appointments. In fact, I'm surprised that there's only been one decision from a Court of Appeals on this issue so far.

     The new case that Mr. Lucia settled had to do with the issue of whether ALJs are unconstitutionally shielded from dismissal. This is all part of the Federalist Society "unitary executive" theory that Presidents must have unbridled discretion, that is if they're Republicans. The Federalist Society will suddenly discover that the constitution imposes dramatic limitations on Presidential power if Joe Biden is elected President.

     Mr. Lucia eventually settled because he was tired of fighting constitutional battles. All Mr. "Buckets of Money" really wants to do is bilk simple-minded investors!

     The assault on ALJs isn't over just because Mr. Lucia settled his case. It doesn't identify them but the Reuters article says there are at least three other such ALJ removal cases pending. The upcoming Supreme Court decision in the Seila Law case will probably have implications for this litigation.