The constitutionality of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission judges is back at the U.S. Supreme Court with a fresh appeal from the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a small-government group that wants the justices to greenlight a federal lawsuit taking aim at the judges’ independence from the president.
The NCLA filed a petition Monday on behalf of Christopher M. Gibson, a former investment adviser accused by the SEC in 2014 of “front running” one of his client’s funds. The “civil liberties” organization told the Supreme Court that the SEC’s in-house enforcement action process is unconstitutional, and argued that Gibson should be able to challenge the process in federal court.